Telstra and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have partnered up to deploy a hyper-converged IT rollout for Tasmania's Scotch Oakburn College, in a major technology overhaul for the 1,200-student school.
The college was looking for a single vendor solution that would offer reliable, secure and modern technology to allow flexibility and ensure continuity across its campuses.
The move came after Scotch Oakburn College experienced several outages, which disrupted its daily activities with systems unavailable at times, therefore prompting investment into an integrated virtualised system that was simple for its IT staff to use and maintain.
“We needed to invest in our IT systems to enhance the experience of the college’s staff and students, and ensure this offering was competitive,” Scotch Oakburn College head of e-learning and IT services, Brendan Vince, said.
“We needed a partner that understood the environment and location in which we work, and when considering potential vendors, Hewlett Packard Enterprise came out on top.”
The college opted for HPE's hyper-converged solutions to improve performance and user experience, while also decreasing ICT management overheads by 25 per cent.
"Telstra worked in partnership with HPE to design and implement the solution to Scotch Oakburn College," a Telstra spokesperson told ARN.
"The technology solution aligns with the school’s goal to focus on implementing reliable technology that enables Scotch Oakburn to focus on education outcomes for students and the community."
The HPE solution was implemented along with some other complementary providers, including Veeam, VMware and Microsoft.
HPE Pointnext, HPE’s own IT services provider, developed and tested a solution to work across the college’s campuses.
HPE Pointnext was involved in the deployment and data migration along with the college’s own IT team, on behalf of Telstra, alongside undertaking the design and installation of a new iSCSI (internet small computer systems interface) Fabric between campuses.
The solution consisted of four HPE hyper-converged nodes (general virtualisation), four HPE FlexFabric 5700 Switch Series and one HPE StoreOnce 5100 unit.
According to HPE technology evangelist, software defined and cloud group for Asia Pacific and Japan, Brendan Sit, the company’s hyper-converged solution has changed the college ability to "seamlessly manage" a complex infrastructure, reduce complexity, improve operational efficiency and reduce cost.
The solution also improved data security and business resilience and the solution’s modular architecture offers the option to scale if needed.
“The HPE team demonstrated solid expertise in improving the reliability and agility of our systems in a cost effective, single vendor solution, which anyone in the IT team is able to manage," Vince added.
"The team on the ground is excellent and have provided us with valuable training and technical support services to ensure a successful implementation."
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