Information Services Newsletter
New Consolidated Server Platform for the University

There has been a recent growth in the number of online services (particularly web-based) that have been created independently by faculties and administrative departments. The University intends consolidating these isolated business services onto a common IT infrastructure and, by taking advantage of economies of scale, maintain greater quality and control of them.

Information Services has co-ordinated the implementation of a consolidated server platform based at Jordanstown. The department has installed a SUN data management solution deploying a Storage Area Network (SAN) and a Sun server providing Network Attached Storage (NAS) services utilising the disk storage of the SAN. A consolidated backup service has also been implemented into this solution using a L180 Tape Library and Veritas NetBackup software.

Services to be hosted on the new platform include:

•  the University’s web site
•  the Campus One (WebCT) service
•  the MIS data warehouse
•  a number of online Library applications
•  a research/general purpose environment

Other services will be scheduled for incorporation onto the platform in due course.

Janine Asquith