Liverpool John Moores University

-- Kevin Walsh, Technical Director, Computing and Information Services, Liverpool John Moores University

Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) has more than 24,000 students from all over the world, around 22,500 of whom study in Liverpool and the university has played a vital role in the cultural renaissance of Liverpool. LJMU is a very dynamic and rapidly evolving institution, and this has resulted in a growing demand for data storage and availability that the university's old IT infrastructure could not meet.

The problems were made worse because LJMU has been moving away from a traditional nine to five, Monday to Friday environment to become a 24x7 organisation. Students expect constant access to IT, with Learning Resource Centres open 24 hours a day and peak use of the Virtual Learning Environment occurring at 2am. Also, LJMU has a very large franchise operation, running courses in China, Greece and Malaysia, which demands round-the-clock access.

• Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) is a dynamic and rapidly expanding institution whose students and staff now demand 24x7 access to learning and other applications
• The university's old system was no longer suitable to its needs with limits on scalability that were also affecting availability
• LJMU needed a new answer that would remove limitations on growth, provide higher availability and also provide much needed business continuity

• LJMU created a second computer room and installed new HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Arrays in each – with a third site for its HP Ultrium Tape Library
• Two SANs are replicated across each of the main sites with HP ProLiant servers connected to run many applications including Exchange, media and video streaming and the Blackboard virtual learning environment, Internet and intranet. It also runs the Oracle Student System, CRM and Library Management system on Linux
• Sites are connected by the university’s private fibre network and stretch clustering is used across the two centres

• Recovery times have been slashed from five days to two hours, or even seconds
• In line with the dynamic development of LJMU, the 24,000 students and 2,500 staff now have much quicker access to vital learning resources and data 24x7
• The system is highly reliable and scalable, has increased availability and significantly reduced disk management demands, giving IT staff more time to add value to the organisation

For more information on how working with HP can benefit you, please contact your local HP sales representative or reseller, or visit www.HP.com.

© 2005 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Publication Number: 4AA0-0607EEE     Written: October 2005

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