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Dutch University Virtualizes Applications, Reduces Costs and Improves Provisioning of Education Applications With Cisco Application Networking Services
Cisco Application Control Engine Is Expected to Save Avans University of Applied Sciences Thousands of Euros a Year and Increase Speed of Deployment for New E-Learning Applications
| Source: Cisco
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS--(Marketwire - January 22, 2008) - Avans University of Applied
Sciences, a university with 19,000 students in the South of The
Netherlands, expects to reduce the cost, and improve the speed of
deployment for new e-learning systems and applications with a Cisco
(NASDAQ : CSCO ) Application Control Engine (ACE). The University will use
Cisco ACE to make better use of existing server hardware, centralise
management of 230 servers and make application maintenance faster and more
efficient.
Virtualization functionality in Cisco ACE will be used to enable University
applications -- such as web mail, an e-learning portal and a learning
management system, as well as applications specific to various department
and schools within the University -- to be shared across servers making it
easier to control applications, simplify management and reduce costs.
Avans estimates the Cisco ACE will help save it EUR 1000 per server by
removing the need to buy extra hardware to enable multiple applications to
share multiple server resources. Cisco ACE also means the University can
develop new services faster and carry out application maintenance during
the day without interrupting services to students and staff. Previously,
maintenance operations were done out of hours to avoid disruption.
In addition, Avans also expects the Cisco ACE to help the University reduce
the number of servers it needs over the next few years by 30 percent.
The Cisco ACE's will be deployed in two data centers as part of the
Cisco® Data Center Network Architecture which Avans has adopted to help
make its learning, communication and administration applications available
to students and staff quickly and from any University location or remotely.
Hans Marcus, network engineer at Avans, said, "The Cisco ACE will make the
whole process of developing and managing learning and administration
services at Avans much easier. It will help enable more effective use of
server resources by virtualizing applications, and support the University
in maintaining existing applications more efficiently and deploying new
applications faster. Using the server and application virtualization
capabilities in Cisco ACE, we will also be able to scale services as demand
increases without large increases in hardware investment."
Avans's Cisco data center infrastructure comprises the Cisco Application
Control Engine Module (ACE) running on Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches
which are located in two data centers in Breda and 's-Hertogenbosch. The
University uses Cisco routers and switches for local area networks at it
key sites. These are connected via SURFnet, a fiber optic network used by
research and educational institutes across the Netherlands. The Cisco
network infrastructure acts as a platform for delivering a range of
advanced technologies in the future. The Cisco® Data Center Network
solution at Avans is being implemented by IMTECH ICT, a Cisco Silver
Certified Partner.
"Organizations like Avans face increasing pressures to improve the
reliability and quality of applications while reducing costs. They may
have disparate departments with discrete applications that need to be
managed and controlled; they may also have a variety of different point
products needed for specific educational or operational requirements; and
there are security and compliance issues that place additional constraints
on how IT can respond," said Coks Stoffer, general manager, Cisco
Netherlands. "As a core part of the Cisco® Data Center Network
Architecture and the Cisco ACE Application Control Engine Module,
virtualization can give organisations control over their application
infrastructure so they can manage, secure and improve application services
across the enterprise."
About Avans Hogenscholen
Avans Hogeschool, the Avans University of Applied Sciences was founded in
January 2004 following a merger of Hogeschool Brabant and Hogeschool
's-Hertogenbosch. It has 19,000 full and part-time students and offers 41
vocational focused courses from international business and economics to
health services and computer sciences. It has 19 faculties located in
various buildings in three cities -- Breda, s-Hertogenbosch and Tilburg --
in southern Netherlands.
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