Sydney Business and Travel Academy

Story Details

The Sydney Business & Travel Academy (SBTA) was established in 1985 and is located in Sydney, Australia. SBTA employs 20 administrative staff, and 25,00 to 3,000 students per year enroll in courses specializing in business, hospitality, tourism and children's services.

In the highly competitive tertiary education market, a modern computing environment is critical to attracting students. SBTA was previously running Microsoft Windows 98 on 200 PCs located in two computer rooms and in the academy's Internet cafe. With an average computer lifespan of four to five years, the academy tried to extend the life of its IT investment by turning its aging PCs into dumb terminals. This was achieved by migrating from Windows 98 to Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) software to create a Linux thin client environment. Despite the new environment, students perceived any issues in network speed to be due to the aging infrastructure.

Students were given basic password access to student computers upon enrollment, however multiple users could log in to each session. With an open campus environment, there was no mechanism in place to monitor and control user access. Students could provide their password and user name to friends who were not enrolled at SBTA, who then could make use of the organization's computer facilities.

Faced with these issues, SBTA wanted to modernize its IT infrastructure, while maintaining an environment that was familiar to students and connected easily to the existing infrastructure and network. The academy was budgeting between AU$21,000 to AU$31,000 a year in IT maintenance. SBTA wanted to reduce these costs and decrease the total cost of ownership (TCO) of its IT systems. SBTA was on the verge of replacing its PCs and recognized that it would need a total replacement again in four years.

Based on the proof of concept (POC) provided by Sun and its partner Noveix, which demonstrated a Sun virtual display client and server solution, SBTA chose to migrate its entire PC environment to 175 Sun Ray 2 virtual display clients, and roll out individual Sun Java Card technology for students to access the terminals.

SBTA expects its Sun Ray 2 thin clients to last for 10 years, as opposed to PC replacements that would need to be replaced within four years. SBTA was confident that after four to five years using the Sun Ray thin clients the only expense would be in upgrading the server and relevant software, resulting in a fraction of the total cost of maintaining a Windows environment.

Previously using white box servers to run its Linux environment, SBTA deployed one Sun Fire X4200 M2 server and three Sun Fire X2100 M2 servers running the Solaris 10 Operating System. SBTA deployed a single Sun StorageTek LT03 tape drive to provide quick on site back up of the student directory and the Solaris 10 Operating System.

A single Sun Fire X2100 M2 server is running VMware and Linux. VMware is used to enable SBTA to run multiple virtual desktop environments. Windows Server 2003 is run over remote desktop protocol and is used by the 20 administrative staff. SBTA uses a separate VMware image of Windows Server 2003 to provide trainers with their own desktop environment. LTSP is provided for specific travel students to run Galileo software for simulating the booking of airline tickets.

Deploying Solaris 10 Operating System reflected SBTA's positive experience using open source software. In choosing Solaris, cost was only a minor consideration for the organization. In the past, SBTA had found open source products to be stable and with minimal maintenance required. True to form, since its installation Solaris has required virtually no maintenance from the organization.

SBTA is using the Sun Java Card technology as student identification cards, with student information and a bar code printed on each card. Students now have single user access to the computing environment using the Java Card technology. Each session is automatically saved when the card is removed and can be reactivated at any terminal. The academy uses proprietary in-house software, which integrates with its student management system, to create, maintain and delete access to the computers and terminals through the Java Card technology. For example, Sun's Java Card technology is deactivated when enrollment ceases or when outstanding fees are owed.

The entire project took Noveix just four weeks to roll out. Noveix matched the solution to SBTA's requirements, fully automating and integrating the solution into the existing system. With up to 150 people on machines at same time, since installing the new infrastructure SBTA and its users have been assured of optimal speed and access.

As a result of deploying Sun Ray 2 virtual display clients, Sun Ray Software and Sun servers, SBTA has received high levels of satisfaction from both students and staff, especially on the speed of new environment. The academy estimates to have achieved 12 to 15 percent more space in deploying Sun Ray 2 thin client terminals, enabling additional machines to be rolled out to students. Maintenance has been reduced to approximately 30 minutes per week of system monitoring.