Learning any time, any place, on any device Cisco® Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) technology enhances Qatar University’s delivery of optimum teaching and learning, supported by a new disaster recovery data center. “Providing services to students and researchers anytime and anywhere is a key component of our ongoing growth.” - Trevor Moore, CIO, Qatar University With a rapidly expanding student population in a fast-growing region, IT must find ways to accelerate the delivery of educational services while meeting students’ expectations for e-learning. • Offer educational services anytime and anywhere Challenges • Establish solid fundamentals to facilitate institutional growth • Simplify data center management Located in Qatar’s capital city of Doha, Qatar University (QU) is the gulf state’s first national institution of higher education. The organization is committed to addressing national priorities while providing students with opportunities and resources to gain knowledge, competencies, and skills that prepare them to become leaders in the country’s development as they make progress toward a knowledge-based economy. The data center provides an optimal digital learning environment, which enhances students’ academic experiences by giving them the flexibility to do their best learning at any time of day or night. Case Study | Qatar University Size: 17,000 Students Location: Doha, Qatar © 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Industry: Education 1 “We are aiming to offer a hybrid learning model that combines traditional and digital teaching methods,” QU Information Technology Services Department chief information officer (CIO), Trevor Moore said, adding, “A cloud-based environment will enable our students and faculty to access resources when needed, regardless of location or device.” Added to its expanded student and faculty population, and fast-growing academic and research portfolio, QU has further advanced its role as the nation’s research engine. In this regard, the university sought to implement a flexible and scalable IT platform to support its faculty and student needs and to provide its community with an optimal anytime, anywhere teaching and learning environment. The Cisco ACI technology open environment provides an infrastructure that enhances the students’ learning experience and their personal and professional development. • Established region’s first SDN data center at QU Solutions • Deployed a new state-of-the art, scalable platform with secure disaster recovery capabilities • Centralized the management interface for network and application services Facilitating disaster preparedness “The new data center reinforces our capability to host critical applications offsite to offset the potential impact of a disaster,” QU Networking and Telecommunications section head Shuja Ashfaq says. “We are now in a good position to react to any unforeseen circumstances.” In addition to giving the university the flexibility to scale and react to both controlled and unexpected events, the new data center reduces the risks by removing unnecessary touch points and management silos. “The data center will give us the opportunity to meet the evolving needs and requirements of the faculty members and to satisfy the needs of the researchers within the colleges, especially the newly established College of Medicine,” says Ashfaq. “In addition, we can create more defined security policies for our various applications in collaboration with Cisco.” © 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 2 A regional first The anytime, anywhere facility is accorded optimum support through the data center, which deploys an SDN architecture, making QU the first educational institution in the Middle East to possess this network resource. The facility enriches students’ opportunities to be better engaged in the academic learning experience and be motivated towards success. “Providing the underlying infrastructure to support research and development initiatives is in keeping with the institutional commitment to be a leading partner in contributing to the country’s vision of becoming a knowledge-based economy,” Moore said. “This IT foundation is critical to ensure the success of these initiatives and to contribute to enhancing continuous economic development of the country.” Ease of integration and deployment Cisco ACI technology and F5 Networks technology are deployed at QU to manage its network and application services from a central management interface, the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC). According to Ashfaq, “From an integration perspective, the data center has benefited from this technology as it has simplified our operational system. The seamless integration will enable us to meet the university’s growing needs in terms of meeting service and security requirements.” The university has also eliminated IT silos and automated processes that reduce the provisioning and deprovisioning time from 10 days to 1 day, which gives students and faculty to access new applications faster and serves to enhance the teaching-learning experience. Finding a balance Cisco ACI provides QU with more granular control over security policies, while delivering more learning options to its students. © 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 3 • Enhanced institutional capabilities to meet current and future needs Results • Accelerated application deployment for students and faculty • Facilitated data center management Continuing the journey The data center also supports QU’s plans to build a private cloud for researchers to access services on their own. “Cisco ACI technology will further contribute to streamlining the management of the data center without the need for additional staff,” says Moore. To read more Cisco customer stories, visit: http://www.cisco.com/go/ customerstories. Products & Services Data Center • Cisco ACI • Cisco APIC • Cisco Nexus® 9000 Series Switches Security • Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Americas Headquarters Cisco Systems, Inc. San Jose, CA Applications • Oracle database and Oracle E-Business Suite • Microsoft Exchange • Banner Student Information System • Blackboard Learning Management System • Qatar University website Asia Pacific Headquarters Cisco Systems (USA) Pte. Ltd. Singapore Europe Headquarters Cisco Systems International BV Amsterdam, The Netherlands Cisco has more than 200 offices worldwide. Addresses, phone numbers, and fax numbers are listed on the Cisco Website at www.cisco.com/go/offices. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R) © 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. 10/15