Education & Research Campus Advisor
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Sun Microsystems' Administrative AdvisorNews, views and trends for the administrative computing worldwww.sun.com/edu/admin Campus Advisor Is Our New NameWe've given this newsletter a new name: Campus Advisor. When this publication was launched as Administrative Advisor, our purpose was restricted to the administrative computing world. Today, however, Sun's Global Education & Research Group has a broader purpose, and reaches a larger audience across the entire spectrum of higher education. As a result, this newsletter will regularly discuss news, views and trends relating to high performance computing, collaborative research, academic programs and new products ÷ in addition to administrative computing. We hope you like our expanded coverage and we invite your comments and suggestions for future articles. Please contact Art Pasquinelli, group marketing manager for Enterprise Computing. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sun Equipment Donation Helps Ibero-American CollaborationsA major donation of Sun hardware is supporting an effort to improve international collaborations in science and technology. In August, Sun donated some $190,000 in equipment to the Ibero-American Science & Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC), a non-profit organization comprised of educational, research, and industrial institutions throughout the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula. The consortium was established in 1990 to foster scientific, engineering, and technology education, joint international research and development efforts among its members, and to provide a cost-effective vehicle for the application and transfer of technology. The effort began with an initial visit by personnel from the University of New Mexico to several Latin American countries to identify and evaluate opportunities for collaborative projects. Meetings were held with officials from various governments, educational institutions, research facilities, and industrial firms. The visit resulted in the identification of areas of common interest for employing hands-on education, research, and technology transfer in state-of-the-art technology and science. An organizational meeting, held in December 1990 at the University of New Mexico, involved personnel from universities, industries, governments and foundations throughout Ibero-America. These discussions, which resulted in the creation of ISTEC, identified a number of needs that ISTEC plans to address:
In response to a proposal from ISTEC, in August Sun donated one Sun Enterprise 450 server, 13 Sun Ultra 5 workstations and six smaller servers. This new equipment will be used to enhance ISTEC projects in digital libraries and distance education, and some of it will be distributed among member institutions. Visit www.istec.org Special Offers Available to Edu CustomersEducation versions of the PowerExpress workgroup servers and new lower pricing on desktops are among the highlights of this quarter's promotions from Sun Microsystems. The education-specific promotions, which are effective worldwide February 8, also include storage solutions and monitor/SunPCi bundles. A number of terrific savings opportunities and special offers on hardware are being offered for education customers through the following promotions, which Sun announced earlier this quarter:
To learn the details of these promotions, visit the Sun Education & Research web site at www.sun.com/edu High Performance Computing at Scottish UniversitiesA Sun Enterprise 6500 server system is powering a collaborative research effort in Scotland, which was recently launched by researchers at Glasgow University's Electrical and Electronic Engineering department and the Physics Department at Strathclyde University. The project is called VIDEOS, which stands for Virtual Interactive Design of Electronic and Optoelectronic systems. The Sun system, comprising a single Sun server equipped with 30P processors and 30Gb RAM, will enable university researchers, working in the field of optoelectronics, to develop complex simulation tools for high-performance devices as well as full-scale systems. Because the success of the Scottish optoelectronic and electronic industries depends on the ability of researchers to accelerate product time-to-market in a globally competitive environment, the universities required a system that would enable them to develop innovative research methods. The research teams can now efficiently create methods for high-fidelity computational modeling of the next-generation optoelectronic and electronic devices and systems, using the Sun system's state-of-the-art parallel processing and Internet access. The universities are developing their own customized set of codes and will use the systems for a number of different applications. The Sun system was selected in a competitive bid, after which Sun was cited for its combination of hardware, software, and superior customer relations. Some of the specific processes the system will assist in are:
Visit www.elec.gla.ac.uk/~dch/VIDEOS.html and www.strath.ac.uk Sun Gains Great Momentum in LibrariesWorking with more than a thousand major academic and research institutions around the world, Sun's success in this market is driven by, among other things, its strong software applications alliances. This issue of Campus Advisor highlights three of those alliances and their recent installations. EndeavorLeading the pack of Endeavor Information Systems installations is the University System of Georgia, which has purchased a new Sun Enterprise 10000 server. Endeavor's Voyager application will be powered by Sun hardware at colleges and universities including: Glendale Community College, Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College, California; the University of Wyoming; Colorado School of Mines, Colorado; Kentucky Wesleyan College, Kentucky; Princeton University, New Jersey; State of Oklahoma Department of Libraries; Paul Quinn College, Texas; and Shepherd College and West Virginia University, West Virginia. Visit www.endinfosys.com Ex LibrisMore than 40 new or upgraded Sun hardware systems were purchased during 1999 to support the Ex Libris ALEPH500 library automation system. The latest, a Sun 450 server at Brandeis University libraries, is slated to go live this summer, providing access to over one million volumes and a wealth of electronic resources. The system will support 100 concurrent users and involve a full data conversion from the DRA Classic system. In Chile, the Universidad Catlica del Norte's new ALEPH500 system will be supported by an Ultra 250 server. Visit www.aleph.co.il, www.exlibris-usa.com and www.exl.de (German). VTLS/VirtuaLibrary systems with new VTLS/Virtua applications will be supported by Sun hardware at universities worldwide, including: Northern Territory Library and Information Service and University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia; American University, Bulgaria; University of Kebangasaan Malaysia and University Tun Abdul Razak, Malaysia; Technical University, Gdansk, Poland; Consorci de Biblioteques Universitaries de Catalunya and Universidad Catlica de Avila, Spain; RERO University of Geneva, Switzerland; Tamkang University, Taiwan; and Eastern Asia University, Rajabhat Institute Dusit Academic Resource Center, Sukhothai Thammathirat University, and Walailak University Library, Thailand. Visit www.vtls.com Sun SpotBy Jerry Neece I'd buy even more of your servers if I could find enough people to run them." Paralleling today's well-chronicled worldwide IT hiring gap, this customer lament is being heard increasingly by Sun Microsystems' sales force and reseller partners. The lack of Solaris system administrators is difficult to reverse because it is a complex problem. First, there is an awareness component. Because two-year public colleges are largely where working adults go to enhance their job and career skills, students at these schools increasingly want to be exposed to Unix and Solaris. Second, the demand for Unix and Solaris instructors is outpacing supply. Third, the demand for Solaris system administrators is rising dramatically, resulting in higher salaries. According to one recent survey, Solaris system administrators report salaries $8,000 above the $56,441 average, while Windows NT administrators averaged $2,000 less than the average. While the IT skills shortage will not disappear overnight, Sun Microsystems is doing its part to provide avenues for interested students and faculty to become aware of the exciting career opportunities in Solaris and Unix system administration and to enhance their marketable skills and knowledge. One of the quickest and less obvious solutions is to make the Solaris operating system easier to administer, allowing a single individual, perhaps remotely, to administer a larger number of servers and workstations. Solaris 8, shipping in February 2000, adds a number of new features that make it easier (i.e., requiring lower skill levels) to administer more systems (i.e., heterogeneous networks) onsite or remotely. To address the awareness issue Solaris marketing introduced a system administrator's portal, BigAdmin.com, in January. On the Unix instructor front, Sun is working with SAGE, the System Administrators' Guild, and sponsoring the efforts of CRISP (College Resource and Instructor Support Program), a Unix instructors' self-support community administered by Dr. Tim Gottleber from North Lake College in Dallas, Texas. The CRISP site will be used as a repository for free, open, Unix curriculum, content, learning objects, exercises and tools, as well as providing mentoring for new Unix instructors. Sun is also looking in the ranks of its own employees and those of its customers, to supply Unix-knowledgeable people to become adjunct lecturers in colleges around the world, perhaps armed with the content and teaching assistance of the CRISP program. Sun Educational Services is introducing several programs in the first half of 2000 that will help address the shortage of Solaris-skilled individuals. The programs involve free, web-based self-paced basic Sun technology courses as well as instructor-led classroom based courses with Solaris certifications that will have a student kit fee. Coupled with the content and curriculum on the CRISP site, these Sun Educational Services offerings will provide educational institutions a choice in for-free or for-fee content and curriculum dealing with the most basic levels of Unix through the most advanced levels of Solaris, for those students seeking industry-recognized certifications or for those just seeking to add to their Networked Economy IT education. Jerry Neece is responsible for the Sun Network Academy and the Java in Education programs within Sun Microsystems' Computer Systems' Education and Research Computing group. Both programs are targeted at increasing the number of college and Primary and Secondary (K12) students with Solaris and Java skills. Jerry welcomes your questions, comments or suggestions. Contact him hereSun Provides Easy Access to LinuxIn response to customer interest, Sun Mcrosystems announced in December it is offering U.S. customers the ability to order commercially supported Linux operating systems for the UltraSPARC platform. Customers interested in Linux for UltraSPARC can now order Red Hat Linux 6.1 via SunStore. "It is Sun's mission to provide our customers and suppliers with a simple, fast and convenient way to do business with us," said Kim Jones, vice president Global Education Market, Sun Microsystems. "The SunStore service is making it easy and convenient for education customers to order Linux for the robust and flexible UltraSPARC platform." Consistent with the Sun computing vision, Linux uses open standards and non-proprietary interfaces. Since joining Linux International in 1998, Sun has collaborated with the open source community on various projects, including contributing enhancements to lxrun, a popular Linux compatibility program that allows Linux applications to run unmodified on the Solaris Operating System. Sun has also provided technical information and systems to an independent team of engineers to develop the first port of Linux to the UltraSPARC platform. In addition, Sun has made available freely downloadable software development tools that further simplify and streamline the process of developing applications that are source-code compatible across both the Linux and Solaris Operating Systems. "We're pleased to collaborate with Sun to offer Red Hat Linux for the UltraSPARC platform," said Paul McNamara, Business Unit Leader, Enterprise Market Segment, Red Hat, Inc. "That Red Hat Linux 6.1 is the first Linux-based operating system to be offered through SunStore furthers the rapid growth, innovation and success of open source." Visit http://www.sun.com/store to view information, configure systems and order online. Java Powers the University: Real-Life Enterprise ApplicationsSun Microsystems' commitment to platform-independent Java as an international standard makes planning for future information system requirements a very straightforward process. And because Sun and its technology partners offer a range of system solutions based on Java, universities and college decision-makers can find, and if necessary customize, the technology solution that meets their need. Web development and information technology departments and other campus groups are using a range of Java-based tools to better serve and support faculty, students and staff members. At the University of Minnesota, for example, Java is being used to enable students to apply online for admissions, register for classes, view grades and update personal information. At Princeton, Enterprise JavaBeans is the foundation for a medical benefits application. Florida State University has some 20 Java-based programs running or being tested in an increasingly user-friendly Web environment. At other university campuses, like Stanford and George Mason, users are discovering new ways to store and share files using Java. University of MinnesotaWeb Development at the University of Minnesota has targeted Java as its technology solution for a complex Web environment featuring multiple platforms. All the services on Minnesota's online site are widely used by the university's 70,000-plus user population, with students performing an average of some 3.2 million page downloads monthly. The university is currently implementing two new Java-based Web applications developed by university staff ÷ My One Stop Portal and Portfolio 2.0 ÷ which are running on a Sun E450 server and Oracle 8i software. My One Stop Portal provides a single point or electronic "portal" entry for all transactional services provided by the university. According to Michael Handberg, Director of Web Development, Twin Cities campus, Web Development's vision is to integrate My One Stop with student e-mail and to enable users to plan courses, apply for housing, obtain degree audit reports, submit grades, and shop for university goods, among other activities. The portal site offers front-end entry to Portfolio 2.0, a management information tool enabling students and other university users to access and share personal academic data and learning achievements. Web Development is also working with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to modify Portfolio 2.0 to become a key component of the DOL's career programs, including America's Job Bank and America's Learning eXchange (ALX) Career Management Account. Portfolio 2.0 essentially offers a tool for lifelong learning for University of Minnesota students. The university's vision is for students to build strong portfolios as they move through the university and continue learning. Visit www.umn.edu Florida State UniversityIn Florida State University's multi-platform environment, Administrative Information Systems (AIS) has a vision "to provide all services to students and staff through the Web." "We're seeking to create a seamless set of Web-based student services so that no student will need to stand in a long line at a counter for any university service," says AIS Director Russ Henderson. "Java provides a foundation to accomplish that, in combination with different relational database technologies. We are building for the future based on a distributed network architecture, and we intend to provide educational services internationally." The Web and Java will support FSU's open and standards based approach. AIS has a staff of some 20 Java programmers, each of whom writes applications. The university continues to implement new software on an ongoing basis. A few of the Java-based applications include:
Technology Director for Student Services Ric Dugger notes that the university receives up to 40,000 applications a year, with well over half of those coming through Web-based Java applications. Both graduate and undergraduate admissions programs are served with Java-based tools. Visit www.ais.fsu.edu Princeton UniversityPrinceton University has three administrative applications in production using Java, with several more standing by for early-2000 roll-out. Current applications include the Student Accounts system and Student Loan system, with several receivables systems ÷ for mortgages, parent loans and rents ÷ slated for production soon. Like other universities, Princeton decided to build applications when it couldn't find package products that matched its business requirements, according to Information Systems Director Dave Koehler. "We're working now with PeopleSoft in other domains, but at that time, we needed to create our own applications," he says. Princeton reviewed its enterprise strategy in 1995 and chose Java as its programming language and platform. "We decided to replace all of our mainframe applications with client-server applications, and determined how we wanted to build our infrastructure," says Koehler. Princeton's standard development environment for building applications or modules of current applications is three-tier, Java thin-client using html, middle tier business logic written in Java (Enterprise JavaBeans, EJB) and data stored in the Oracle RDBMS. Princeton's most recent application to go into production, the EJB application, was written by university programmers for a medical benefits program; Princeton likes EJB's component-based architecture for building administrative applications. Another application on the drawing board involves a time and labor recording system for all campus employees that will be the front end to a PeopleSoft Human Resources application. Visit www.princeton.edu Making Use of the Internet ö And JavaA number of campuses are discovering another new way to use the Internet, and work on files, without using up valuable hard drive space. An Internet Service Vendor called i-drive.com, a new leader in online file storage, uses Java to provide students, faculty and staff with a way to store, share, send and publish files across campus or across the country. The entirely Java-based Internet storage concept provides free storage that is linked to the Internet, putting courses and other academic material at users' fingertips. Specific features and capabilities of i-drive include:
According to Tom Cramer, director, university development, i-drive.com now has a university consortium, a group of technologically progressive schools who are partnering with i-drive to help bring the power of Internet file space to their campuses. "They act as a steering committee and common user group. Right now there are a couple dozen schools actively working with us, telling us where we need to take the product." Universities that are currently part of the consortium include Case Western Reserve, MIT, Northwestern, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Wake Forest and others. According to Cramer, when the company first approached Stanford early in its history, representatives from the university saw the complementary potential of i-drive's Web-based file utility with existing systems like Unix and AFS. Stanford is working closely with i-drive to provide feedback on the product throughout the development cycle, and has created i-drive accounts for students, faculty and staff members. In addition to offering the product as a simpler, easier way to access and store files, the university will also test i-drive for collaborating on and distributing class materials. George Mason University finds i-drive a useful tool in addressing the needs of a mobile, geographically dispersed student body of 20,000 plus. The university has initiated pilots with the School of Management, select academic units, and the Institutional Research & Reporting group. George Mason plans to continue to roll out the service to the rest of the community and educate users on the benefits of i-drive using real-life examples observed during the pilots. Visit www.idrive.com JA-SIG Seeks to Nurture Communication about Java"We are a unique industry group in higher education in that we aren't competitive ÷ but rather collaborative ÷ with one another," observes Dave Koehler, director of Information Systems, Princeton University. "Our goal is to be as efficient as possible with our administrative processes so we can be more effective with our academic programs." Such thinking is what characterizes the newly established Java in Administration Special Interest Group (JA-SIG), which is chaired by Koehler and already counts some 30 institutions among its membership. The goal of JA-SIG is to exchange information on best practices in Java development in campus administration and to ensure the flow of information between educational institutions and companies involved in the development of administrative applications using Java. One of the major achievements of the JA-SIG's initial meeting, held December 9 and 10 in Orlando, Florida, was a plan to set up a clearinghouse to share Java-based applications. Some 100 attendees, representing some 30 major institutions, attended the session. Presentations were made by representatives of the University of British Columbia, Columbia, Cornell, University of Delaware, Florida State University, University of Minnesota and Princeton, in addition to PricewaterhouseCoopers, SPD WorldGroup, Oracle and Sun Microsystems. Visit www.JA-SIG.org Emerging Technology TrendsBy Art Pasquinelli The recent meeting of the Java in Administration Special Interest Group (JA-SIG) [see the article on page 5] made me aware of the following technology trends that merit your attention: PortalsMany schools will develop custom or semi-custom portals to link their courseware, key data, and information systems to their on- and off-campus constituencies. As Paul Stieman points out in his article on page 7, technologies like iPlanet will be utilized to develop close links to students and teachers in a secure manner. We are seeing the development of portal working groups within the JA-SIG, which indicates that leading institutions are very willing to co-develop standard portal frameworks that can then be customized for their institutions depending on their school's needs, goals, rules and traditions, and target audiences. Most institutions will probably opt to use third party portal products from firms such as Campus Pipeline or TimeCruiser that can be linked into their established back-end applications. But schools will be looking for best-of-breed alternatives that can 1) help them convey the unique attributes, competencies, and strengths of the institution and 2) communicate with different audiences such as alumni, students, teachers, the local community, parents, and administrators. JavaJava is now accepted. It is achieving predominance on the academic side of the campus and has now taken a strong foothold in the administrative side of the house. I can personally testify that dozens and dozens of institutions worldwide have developed and are running industrial strength, Java-based applications in core administrative functions. As you can see in the article on pages 4-5, Florida State University alone has developed some 20 Java-based administrative applications! Samples of applications will now be posted for viewing and use at the www.ja-sig.org website. Move to Open ArchitecturesAt the JA-SIG conference Sun introduced its new SunConnect architectural framework. This framework focuses on institutions and software developers that are interested in developing and deploying systems that meet the demands of the dot.com age. At the heart of the program is an Enterprise Java Bean (EJB)/CORBA-based specification. Compliance with this specification will allow connectivity between applications, secure delivery of applications to web devices, and interoperability with legacy systems. The ultimate goal of this framework is seamless, open, API-based connectivity between applications and across the campus enterprise. From the perspective of an educational institution, SunConnect addresses key infrastructure issues including dynamic scalability; continuous availability; universal, 24x7 accessibility and authentication; and application and service security. A number of schools have already adopted an EJB-based development strategy and are headed in this direction. Again, read the article on pages 4-5, to see how Princeton University, for instance, has done extensive work with EJB in its administrative application development efforts. Art Pasquinelli is group marketing manager for Enterprise Computing in Sun's Global Education and Research organization. Art welcomes your questions, comments or suggestions. Contact him here Sun's Ultra 80 and Enterprise 10000 Offers New Computing Features(continued from page 6) Many universities and other higher education institutions are choosing Sun workstations and high-end servers to perform their increasingly demanding project computing challenges. Campus IT professionals are giving high marks to Sun's newest workstation, the Ultra 80 desktop, and the Enterprise 10000 high-end server. Ultra 80: More Computational PowerThe Ultra 80 workstation offers more computational power and higher memory capacity than its predecessor, the Ultra 60 workstation. Sun's only desktop workstation with uni-processor, dual-processor, and quad-processor configurations, the Ultra 80 is ideally suited for simulation, design and analysis, modeling and virtual prototyping, animation, rendering, and video effects, geosciences (mapping, oil and gas exploration), imaging and visualization, medical imaging, research and development, and financial modeling. The Ultra 80's balanced architecture lets users deploy all the processing power, memory, I/O, and graphics required, without limiting performance or creating bottlenecks. Offering the highest memory bandwidth in the Sun workstation product line, it can be configured with up to four gigabytes of memory, four processors and dual Elite3D graphics. Because the Ultra 80 is 100-percent binary compatible with all Solaris Operating System applications, users can run the same applications up or down the Sun product line. And now with SunPCi, technical UNIX workstation users can run MS Windows 95/NT applications on the same system. Ideal for the most demanding graphics applications, the Ultra 80 can power multiple high-performance graphics subsystems with up to two Elite3D m3 and/or Elite3D m6 simultaneously at full speed. Visit www.sun.com/desktop/products/ultra80/ Sun Enterprise 10000 ServerWith the introduction of third generation domain management software, the 64-way Sun Enterprise 10000 system now gives institutions the ability to consolidate applications onto one large-capacity server to lower costs and ease system management functions. The Enterprise 10000 enables dynamic partitioning, an important component of consolidation plans because it allows multiple applications to run in isolated environments on a single server. Resource allocation across individual domains can be accomplished on the fly, without rebooting any of the partitions, a crucial issue when maintaining mission-critical computing platforms in IT environments. Available Dynamic System Domains (DSDs) have been increased from eight to 16. Sun has also added Automated Dynamic Reconfiguration (ADR) and InterDomain Networks (IDN) to the Enterprise 10000 system, which allows data center customers to better utilize the system's domain capabilities. Automated Dynamic Reconfiguration (ADR) removes the need to manually enter commands when reconfiguring domain resources. Instead of using keystrokes or mouse clicks, ADR automates the domain reconfiguration process with a simple script of code that can be run when needed. Scripts can be written and executed by system administrators to address peak-load situations, reallocating resources on the fly, and dynamically moving system boards from one domain to another. InterDomain Networks (IDN) facilitates data transfer between domains by providing a high-speed network connection via the Gigaplane-XB interconnect. This virtual link between domains can be temporarily set up when needed for data mart loads, network backup, and other high-bandwidth inter-domain communications. The Enterprise 10000 continues the Sun tradition of innovative scalable design, tightly integrated hardware and software, comprehensive RAS features, limitless scalability and flexibility, and highly competitive price/performance. Visit www.sun.com/servers/highend/10000 iPlanet: Infrastructure Products to ÎDot Com' Your CampusBy Paul Stieman, PhD The Internet and associated technologies clearly position organizations of all types with new ways of doing business, new opportunities, and new competitors. This means that colleges and universities are or soon will be looking for ways of moving beyond the "traditional" uses of the Internet that were invented at universities. In this environment, higher education institutions will be able to offer life-long learning to students without regard to where they reside; they will be able to provide more convenient ways for individuals to complete a course of education; and this wider array of learning opportunities will lead to greater competition among colleges and universities. Many institutions are already developing strategies for taking full advantage of the rapidly emerging "dot com" economy. CIOs and others in leadership positions at colleges and universities recognize the importance of having a truly service-driven network, one that provides Sun's vision for higher education: connectivity of "anyone, anytime, anywhere, on any device÷all made possible by webtone that is as reliable and continuous as dialtone." In Sun's vision:
Over the past few years, institutions have focused on wiring their campuses, addressing their Y2K problems, selecting and implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), deciding on a distance learning strategy, and embracing the power of the Internet. In order to fully realize the advantages of a "dot-commed" campus, IT leaders must now assess their preparedness to implement capabilities that will comprise a service-driven network for their institutions. At Sun, when we say we will "dot com" an organization, we are referring to the infrastructure that connects people and organizations to the Internet. As a former CIO, I realized tremendous value in having infrastructure in place. This enables rapid deployment of new applications and capabilities as needs arise and as opportunities develop and evolve. The Sun-Netscape Alliance offers a set of application infrastructure products ÷ iPlanet Internet and e-commerce software. This software enables institutions to put the following infrastructure components in place:
For institutions that adopt the iPlanet infrastructure products, this means that they will be positioned to provide fast, reliable delivery of web site services; streamlined management of resources; enhanced security services; and 24x7 communication and collaboration with all members of an educational community. The flexibility and scalability of these products allow a college or university to respond to rapid growth. Finally, the iPlanet infrastructure products are designed to integrate with and extend the ERP and legacy system investments that institutions have made. For additional information on iPlanet, visit www.iplanet.com. Sun Enterprise Computing Consultant Paul Stieman served for 20 years as CIO at the University of Pittsburgh, where he continues to hold an appointment as an adjunct faculty member in the Katz Graduate School of Business. Paul can be reached at 412/369-4341 or fill out this form Universities Run Innovative Web-based Courses on SunWeb-based learning ÷ as exemplified by course offerings from two innovative universities ÷ is making higher education increasingly accessible to students in campus environments as well as scholars working from home or business. In Canada, WebCT (short for Web Course Tools) is offering institutions like the University of Alberta an integrated set of components for developing and delivering interactive courses, or course components, over the Web. Students from as far away as Nigeria, Guam, Ghana and Chile are currently enrolled in University of Alberta courses using WebCT. The university's Committee for an Integrated Distributed Environment for Adult Learning (IDEAL) selected WebCT as the platform of choice for centrally supported distributed learning in 1998. The university launched a universitywide online learning environment during the 1998/1999 academic year with successful registration of 14,000 students in 375 online courses. Following the pilot, the WebCT servers, formerly run on an Intel-based system, were upgraded to Sun Enterprise 450 machines. Sun has joined with the university in the first partnership for distributed learning, with the university being designated a Global Reference Site for Distributed Learning Systems. Visit www.ualberta.ca/webct and www.webct.com Fully accredited online learningIn Englewood, Colorado, Jones International University, the first fully accredited online university, offers an online curriculum designed by experts from colleges and universities around the globe. Courses are offered in eight-week terms and start each month. Jones University's courses are powered by Sun Ultra 5 servers running a Solaris 2.7 operating system. A test server uses a Sun Ultra 1 that is running Solaris 2.5. Jones's e-education company is a division of JonesKnowledge, which offers online software products and support services, and uses dual Sun Enterprise 450s for High Availability. Visit www.bestdegree.com BookmarkSun's Administrative Computing Group recommends these new publications from Sun Microsystems Press. For more information, please visit: www.sun.com/books Sun BluePrints is a just-published series of books, guides and timely on-line articles that tell how to best use Sun products in the data center. Another feature supporting this series is the Sun BluePrints Center, a customer portal designed to highlight and share information about the Sun BluePrints Books and online articles. Visit www.sun.com/books/blueprints.series.html. Resource ManagementWritten by Richard McDougall, Adrian Cockcroft, Evert Hoogendoorn, Enrique Vargas and Tom Bialaski, this 368-page Sun BluePrint is a practical guide that shows how to manage system resources to meet system and performance service levels. On The CalendarLook for Sun Microsystems' booth at the following higher education administrative computing events:
Contact Sun in Administrative Computing Campus Advisor is a publication of the Global Education & Research Group of Sun Microsystems Inc. Sun Microsystems Inc. © 2000 Sun Microsystems Inc. All rights reserved. Sun, Sun Microsystems, Sun Ray, the Sun logo, Ultra Enterprise, Sun Enterprise, Sun SPARCstorage, Sun BluePrints, Java, Jini, Netra, StarOffice and Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems Inc. in the United States and other countries. Printed in the United States. 1/00 KE291-0/4K | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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