Actian Case Studies Department of Education and Training in Western Australia Makes the Grade with Actian and Red Hat

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	Department of Education and Training in Western Australia Makes the Grade with Actian and Red Hat Actian

Department of Education and Training in Western Australia Makes the Grade with Actian and Red Hat

Actian

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Applicable Industries	Education
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Human Resources
Use Cases	Process Control & Optimization Remote Collaboration
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	The Department of Education and Training in Western Australia (WA DET) was facing a challenge with its back-end computing environment. The department managed a range of administrative activities to support programs delivered by 11 colleges and 8,000 staff throughout the state. The systems collectively managed over 1 million student records with 120,000 students processed through the state’s training systems annually. However, regional locations had to manage their own back-end environments, which imposed an expensive support burden on WA DET staff and vendor support engineers. Proprietary Unix server environments, often built on a variety of hardware models of differing ages, had to be managed remotely, along with the complex applications they were running. With many DET colleges hundreds of kilometers apart, it had become too expensive and cumbersome to maintain this computing environment. Read More
About Customer	The Department of Education and Training in Western Australia (WA DET) is a government department responsible for managing a range of administrative activities to support programs that are delivered by 11 colleges and 8,000 staff throughout the state. The systems collectively manage in excess of 1 million student records with 120,000 students processed through the state’s training systems annually. The department was facing challenges with its back-end computing environment, which was spread across regional locations, each managing their own back-end environments. This imposed an expensive support burden on WA DET staff and vendor support engineers. Read More
Solution	The department began an initiative to centralize and consolidate its back-end computing environment around a central data center using the Linux and Ingres platforms. WA DET’s developers and technical staff selected Ingres Database to migrate away from the existing proprietary environment. This was built on commodity servers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ingres. Minimal change on the front end ensured continuity of service throughout the project, which was an essential requirement in such a high-use environment. No immediate changes were required to .NET-developed applications as data was channeled through the Ingres .NET Connector. These applications processed enrollment, resource management, timetabling, student fees, assessments, results, Web course catalogues and more. WA DET’s technical staff were supported by Ingres database specialists throughout the course of the migration, ensuring a smooth transition to the open source platform. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Applicable Industries

Education

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Human Resources

Use Cases

Process Control & Optimization

Remote Collaboration

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

The Department of Education and Training in Western Australia (WA DET) was facing a challenge with its back-end computing environment. The department managed a range of administrative activities to support programs delivered by 11 colleges and 8,000 staff throughout the state. The systems collectively managed over 1 million student records with 120,000 students processed through the state’s training systems annually. However, regional locations had to manage their own back-end environments, which imposed an expensive support burden on WA DET staff and vendor support engineers. Proprietary Unix server environments, often built on a variety of hardware models of differing ages, had to be managed remotely, along with the complex applications they were running. With many DET colleges hundreds of kilometers apart, it had become too expensive and cumbersome to maintain this computing environment.

About Customer

The Department of Education and Training in Western Australia (WA DET) is a government department responsible for managing a range of administrative activities to support programs that are delivered by 11 colleges and 8,000 staff throughout the state. The systems collectively manage in excess of 1 million student records with 120,000 students processed through the state’s training systems annually. The department was facing challenges with its back-end computing environment, which was spread across regional locations, each managing their own back-end environments. This imposed an expensive support burden on WA DET staff and vendor support engineers.

Solution

The department began an initiative to centralize and consolidate its back-end computing environment around a central data center using the Linux and Ingres platforms. WA DET’s developers and technical staff selected Ingres Database to migrate away from the existing proprietary environment. This was built on commodity servers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ingres. Minimal change on the front end ensured continuity of service throughout the project, which was an essential requirement in such a high-use environment. No immediate changes were required to .NET-developed applications as data was channeled through the Ingres .NET Connector. These applications processed enrollment, resource management, timetabling, student fees, assessments, results, Web course catalogues and more. WA DET’s technical staff were supported by Ingres database specialists throughout the course of the migration, ensuring a smooth transition to the open source platform.

Impact #1	The new, centralized environment is performing better and has proved far easier to manage than the previous disparate configuration.
Impact #2	Since introducing the new open-systems servers and shifting to Ingres Database, WA DET has introduced a range of systems that improve self-service capabilities for students and staff.
Impact #3	Microsoft CRM and SharePoint have both been implemented in the new environment and link to Ingres to further streamline the delivery of training across Western Australia.

Impact #1

The new, centralized environment is performing better and has proved far easier to manage than the previous disparate configuration.

Impact #2

Since introducing the new open-systems servers and shifting to Ingres Database, WA DET has introduced a range of systems that improve self-service capabilities for students and staff.

Impact #3

Microsoft CRM and SharePoint have both been implemented in the new environment and link to Ingres to further streamline the delivery of training across Western Australia.

Benefit #1	Eliminated costly support contracts for the previous proprietary hardware and software.
Benefit #2	Database and application servers from across the state were centralized into a single data center with 5 physical servers running 11 Ingres databases and 31 supporting server instances.
Benefit #3	Consistency in Ingres application interfaces meant there were no interruptions to end-user services during the migration.

Benefit #1

Eliminated costly support contracts for the previous proprietary hardware and software.

Benefit #2

Database and application servers from across the state were centralized into a single data center with 5 physical servers running 11 Ingres databases and 31 supporting server instances.

Benefit #3

Consistency in Ingres application interfaces meant there were no interruptions to end-user services during the migration.

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Overview

Department of Education and Training in Western Australia Makes the Grade with Actian and Red Hat

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit