IBM: Middlesex University and IBM sign five-year agreement to provide new IT infrastructure and disaster recovery services

Middlesex University today announced it has chosen IBM (NYSE:IBM) to upgrade and manage its IT infrastructure and provide disaster recovery services in a multi-million pound, five year deal.

The partnership will improve IT services and systems management in line with Middlesex University's enhanced efficiency goals and future IT strategy.

Under the agreement, IBM will implement a hosted, virtualised server and storage environment and provide emergency back-up from a further IBM data centre, enabling a flexible, robust disaster recovery system.

By using a variety of virtualisation systems the University will reduce the number of machines from around 250 to 25 at the primary data centre, electricity usage by 40%, from around 47 kW/hour to 27 kW/hour and physical space requirements from approximately 1,000 square feet to 400 square feet.

The University will also see a reduction in the power and space requirements of its on campus machine rooms, helping it to meet government energy saving targets.

The new infrastructure will also bring other significant benefits including: lower operating costs; improved collaboration tools; increased storage space; improved storage management tools; and higher levels of service to teaching staff and students alike.

For Middlesex University, the scalability of the solution was critical. The University already has a campus in Dubai and will shortly open another in Mauritius and this project enhances its ability to underpin plans for international expansion.

Steve Knight, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, explained, "We need a system that allows flexibility according to our changing requirements and this solution does just that. We were looking for a platform solution to complement our longer term plans to achieve a dynamic infrastructure. In IBM we have a found a partner who shares our technology vision and can help us achieve our strategic goals."

Fraser Davidson, IBM UK Vice President, commented, "Middlesex University has an impressive vision to use technology to consistently deliver the best teaching materials both remotely to students and for students using IT on campus."

Paula Vickers, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Director of Computing and Communication Systems Service at Middlesex, said, "We needed to upgrade our existing hardware and were looking for a solution that offered reliable, modern, scalable infrastructure to underpin the University's business systems and activities. A key requirement was a solution that also helped reduce our carbon footprint through the deployment of modern, energy-saving hardware."

Under the agreement, IBM will provide Remote Managed Information Services, offering IT management and support to Middlesex University, thus freeing its IT team's time to focus on skills and knowledge development in areas of strategic significance to the University. Round the clock monitoring of the University's IT infrastructure will enable IBM staff to proactively address issues before anyone at the University is even aware of them.

"By minimising the day-to-day support and maintenance our IT team provides, we can refocus our time on strategic initiatives and new technologies. As a result of this agreement, teaching staff and students will also experience less disruption as routine maintenance work can increasingly be conducted out of hours," said Paula Vickers.

The solution also addresses Middlesex University's email and file storage requirements. Through server and storage consolidation and virtualisation, the organisation's storage capacity will be increased by 45%, from 48 to 70 terabytes, exploiting the benefits of IBM XIV Storage System and IBM System x3850 M2 hardware.

The contract was signed in September 2009.

For more information about IBM in the UK public sector, visit: ibm.com/easyaccess/publicsector

CONTACT: Jon Bennett, University Press Officer, Middlesex University e-mail: j.bennett@mdx.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)208 411 6761 WWW: http://www.mdx.ac.uk John Galvez, UK External Relations, Public Sector, IBM Tel: +44 (0)773 410 4275 e-mail: john.galvez@uk.ibm.com

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