SIM University (UniSIM)
Launching an Effective Online E-Learning EnvironmentEstablished in 2005, SIM University (UniSIM) is the first university in Singapore dedicated to working professionals and adult learners. UniSIM currently has 6,300 students and over 40 academic programs with more than 200 modules. Flexibility and interactivity are two key factors that UniSIM values highly, as its learning environment must be available 24x7 for the convenience of working professionals and adult learners. Customer Challenges
SolutionUniSIM deployed a Web-based e-learning infrastructure based on Sun Fire servers and Sun StorageTek storage technology to run the Blackboard Academic Suite. Business Results
Story DetailsSIM University (UniSIM) has to operate in a different manner than other educational institutions — the curricula, modules, programs, and even classes have to be flexible to enable students to strike a balance between work and study. The university recognized that it has to invest in its IT infrastructure to efficiently manage and operate an online e-learning solution to give its students a flexible learning environment. “Since we have decided to implement the e-learning infrastructure, it is increasingly critical that the system that supports this remains highly available and that the archives are easily managed,” says Gary Teo, Senior Manager of Educational Technology and Production for UniSIM. “We have to have systems that are always available so that our students can log in anytime, anywhere. We need something that is robust, stable and scalable. Most importantly, it must be cost-effective and highly reliable, which is why we turned to Sun.”
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That is where Sun has been most helpful — to ensure that we get a robust, stable and scalable architecture right from the beginning.
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— Gary Teo, Senior Manager, Education, Technology and Product, SIM University
With almost everything online, learning becomes more flexible and interactive as students can now submit their assignments online, chat with their tutors and peers, download course materials online and even watch lectures online — from the comfort of their homes or wherever they happen to be. “We knew we made the right choice to go with Sun when the company took these seemingly irreconcilable requirements, customized them, and set up our infrastructure within a very short time,” adds Teo. “We are all very impressed.” In order to run the Blackboard Academic Suite, the school put together an array of high-performance Sun products, including a storage area network (SAN) to house its mammoth database of lecture materials and administrative documents. To minimize the need for staff to manage the system, UniSIM acquired high-performance Sun Fire T2000 servers for high availability and automated recovery, and a Sun Fire X4100 server to support video streaming applications. To manage its database, UniSIM chose the Sun Fire V890 server. UniSIM’s critical storage and archive systems runs on a Sun StorageTek 6130 Storage Array and Sun StorageTek C2 Autoloader. As a result, UniSIM is now set for future archive expansion with additional arrays that can easily be added seamlessly. |
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