Cornish College centralises its data storage for virtual learning Penwith College enhances learning environments by implementing a standardised Dell infrastructure enabling the institution to maintain its excellent results and high standards of teaching. Penwith College, in Cornwall, has selected Dell to create an IT infrastructure to make learning environments more engaging with virtual learning and multimedia applications. Through the deployment of blade servers, and secure, centralised storage, Dell was able to provide Penwith College with the cutting-edge software and technology tools required to continue maintaining the high standard of its student body. Commercial pressures mean today’s colleges and universities see students more as customers, therefore in order to maximise funding, they must offer first-rate learning environments that fill classrooms. Penwith College has a tradition of achieving excellent results and places a high value on individual support and equal opportunities for all learners. To maintain its reputation and continue to attract some of the brightest students in the area, Penwith College needed to update and invest in their current IT infrastructure. Guy Guérandel, IT Manager at Penwith College, says: “We needed to develop our IT infrastructure to accommodate the growing demands from new education tools. The previous infrastructure lacked the flexibility to cope with the growth of both the College and the use of media based learning materials and applications. In Dell, we found a solution that would provide scalable storage and high performance.” Already a Dell customer, Penwith College understood Dell’s expansive enterprise offering and realised it could create the desired platform on a standardised Dell infrastructure that included fibre channel storage along with cutting-edge blade server and tape library technology. Working closely with Penwith College over many months, Dell helped design a completely new infrastructure that included Dell PowerEdge 1855 blade servers, a Dell | EMC CX300 storage area network (SAN) and a Dell PowerVault 132T LTO-2 tape library. The new infrastructure also included VMware. Using the virtualisation technology, Penwith College consolidated its existing infrastructure and gained the flexibility to roll out new services and applications rapidly. “Dell helped us make a full evaluation of the VMware,” Guérandel says. “Server virtualisation was new to us, and Dell gave us the insight to realise its benefits.” Throughout the implementation, Penwith College took full advantage of the lease agreements available through Dell Financial Services (DFS). DFS devised a five-year financial plan that allowed the institution to achieve its IT aims and still meet spending plans for the immediate future. Guérandel commented, “Through DFS, we were able to lease the equipment at minimal financial cost. Additionally, Dell was always there to answer our questions and give us the support we needed.” Related links to this article: Penwith College Dell Finalists in the e-Government National Awards 2006 The Local Authority National Survey is now underway, asking all UK councillors and senior staff at the 467 UK Local Authorities their views and plans for 2007-8. The results identify Local Authority plans for investment in shared services to deliver the vision in the Local Government White Paper. Tickets are still available for the 17th Jan e-Government National Conference where the results will be announced. 89 finalists in 11 categories in the e-Government National Awards 2006 have been announced. The Awards recognise and praise the best strategies, achievements, teams and individuals in UK e-Government. Judging takes place shortly and finalists will be announced the first week of November. The Awards will be presented at a prestigious dinner at the Savoy in London on 17th January 2007. For details of booking seats at the dinner and conference please see this link. The Awards are supported by the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit, the Office of Government Commerce, the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers). Platinum sponsor is KPMG, and also a sponsor are SunGard and O2. This article comes from PublicTechnology.net http://www.publictechnology.net/ The URL for this story is: http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=6901