The University of Canberra is gearing up to shift 2500 employees and educators to Windows 11 as part of a decade-long “digital masterplan” initiative.
University of Canberra
University of Canberra
The educational institution has successfully piloted the transition with 50 staff members and is now proceeding to apply the software update to 2500 personnel.
Shared with iTnews at Nutanix Next in Barcelona, University of Canberra’s associate director of vendor and operations, Justin Mason, highlighted that the upgrade will introduce “enhanced security features” to the desktop setup.
“We are striving for equilibrium: this move aims to safeguard university resources, as well as the staff. Yet, academic personnel often possess valid reasons for requiring additional leeway in their research endeavors,” Mason remarked.
Planned security modifications encompass application whitelisting, enabling biometrics for device security, and compliance with the Essential Eight security guidelines.
The switch to Windows 11 is a component of the university’s $30 million digitization roadmap spanning 10 years, entailing 68 initiatives scheduled within the initial three years, with 27 set for completion by 2024.
“Numerous universities are ramping up their digital transformations to enhance the student experience,” Mason noted.
“The objective is to establish a reputation as a easily accessible university. Providing all necessary tools online eliminates the necessity for physical visits to campus,” he added.
Mason delineated the 10-year roadmap into three phases: stabilize, integrate, and prosper.
“Initially, we evaluate our existing setup and streamline redundant operations,” Mason elaborated.
After the consolidation phase, the University of Canberra’s IT division will commence devising its cloud strategy, with a focus on selecting a primary public cloud service provider.
The university’s IT setup encompasses two on-premises data hubs, Nutanix AHV as its private cloud infrastructure, and a small portion in the three principal public cloud platforms: AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
According to Mason, the university previously had a cloud framework, but it is now formalizing a strategic approach for the first time.
“Crafting a cloud strategy enabled us to assess the distribution of our workloads,” he stated.
“A significant portion resides on our private Nutanix cloud, some are on SaaS, but our utilization of public cloud resources is minimal,” Mason added.
No Concerns regarding VMware
The University of Canberra stands out as an exception, as Mason pointed out, being one of the few higher learning establishments not reliant on VMware.
Contrary to others like Macquarie University and Bond University, who have recently disclosed efforts to shift away from VMware environments.
Fortunately, the University of Canberra transitioned entirely from VMware to Nutanix AHV back in 2018, long before VMware’s acquisition by Broadcom and a subsequent fee escalation.
“Regarding Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, other institutions are now encountering challenges,” Mason indicated.
“While we have our fair share of concerns at the university, this is not one of them,” he reassured.
Prior to the transition, the University of Canberra maintained a robust setup involving VMware, Nutanix, significant corporate systems, and Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC).
Nonetheless, as per Mason: “Then along came Nutanix introducing its proprietary hypervisor, Nutanix AHV”.
“Initially met with skepticism, we found VMware to be costly and not budget-friendly,” he stated.
“Thus, we commenced the migration to AHV from VMware. Thankfully, this was accomplished years ago, unlike many universities with vast VMware infrastructures,” Mason added.
According to Mason, the AHV setup provided the IT team with a unified interface and the flexibility to include GPU in the Nutanix instances whenever researchers require it.
“Operated by a small IT squad at a compact university with outsourced IT support, we were seeking a unified management interface combining VMware and Nutanix. Nutanix played a significant role in simplifying operations,” he concluded.
Eleanor Dickinson was present at Nutanix Next in Barcelona as a guest of Nutanix.
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