Customer Success
Miami University
Altiris Total Management Suite consolidates management of IT
resources AT Miami
Miami University, located in Oxford, OH, needed to significantly automate its many manual processes. The University
chose Altiris Total Management Suite (TMS) because of the
breadth and depth of the solutions offered. By automating
formerly manual processes, the University has been able to
free up time for its IT staff to concentrate on more strategic
initiatives and be more proactive rather than putting out fires.
Consolidation Needed
Keeping track of the computers for a university with more than 20,000 students, faculty
and staff is a difficult job. Keeping track of those machines with just an Excel spreadsheet is virtually impossible. That was one of the problems facing Robert Howard,
senior director of support services & campus partnerships for Miami University located
in Oxford, Ohio.
Howard wanted a more efficient method for tracking IT assets so he and the University
administration could make better informed decisions. “For me to be able to manage the
university’s technology, I need to have accurate data to know exactly what I’m managing,” Howard said. “The way we were tracking assets before would be the equivalent
to asking a CFO to manage company finances without providing a budget. It wasn’t a
good way to make decisions.”
“With Altiris, we’re
able to understand
our resources and
our assets better.
Because of this we’re
able to allocate our
resources more
effectively, leading
to a better academic
experience for both
”
students and faculty.
Robert Howard
Senior Director of Support
Services & Campus
Partnerships
Miami University
Another pressing concern for Howard and his staff was their process for managing
security patches. With more than 10,000 machines, it was difficult to ensure all were
patched and secure. Howard’s staff had little time to do anything other than manually
react to threats as they were discovered.
Ultimately, they wanted to automate processes and move from a break-fix approach to
a more strategic model. They also wanted to reduce costs. After an initial evaluation,
three vendors rose to the top: Altiris, Computer Associates and LANDesk.
TMS Offers Needed Breadth in One Console
Due to the breadth and depth of Altiris solutions, and most notably the ability to drive
the benefits of virtualization to the PC with Altiris Software Virtualization Solution™,
Miami chose Altiris. “Altiris Total Management Suite (TMS) just made the most sense,”
Howard said. “It was a good deal and gave us what we needed now with the flexibility
to grow our capabilities in time. We expect long-term benefits from our investment in
Altiris.”
Howard’s biggest challenge became educating the university on the new Altiris tools.
“The hardest part of the implementation was cultural,” Howard said. “Our faculty was
Organization Profile
Founded in 1809, Miami University
was named for the Miami Indian
Tribe that inhabited the valley.
The University’s main campus,
located in Oxford, Ohio, is home to
15,200 undergraduate and 1,700
graduate students, while 2,500
more students are enrolled at
three satellite campuses, including
a European center in Luxembourg.
Miami offers 100 undergraduate
areas of study and another 50
graduate programs, along with a
number of doctoral degrees.
Industry
Higher Education
Solution
Endpoint Management
Customer Success
Miami University
not ready to have their technology managed
and the IT staff wasn’t used to automated IT
management. Anything different that also
happens to have a corporate look and feel,
tends to receive push back.”
to consolidate the purchase process. The
university now plans to buy computers
and other IT assets collectively for all departments to take advantage of volume
discounts.
After some initial resistance, Howard was
able to show how Altiris would benefit the
organization. For example, Altiris deployment and migration solutions will help the
IT organization refresh hardware every
three years instead of every five by helping
to reduce the cost and complexity of computer upgrades. “When we really brought
it home and showed them what they were
going to gain, people really started to come
around,” Howard said.
Security Threats Avoided
Miami is performing a phased rollout
of Altiris solutions. They currently have
implemented Altiris Inventory Solution,
Patch Management Solution™, Deployment
Solution™, Carbon Copy® Solution and PC
Transplant® Solution with plans to roll out
Recovery Solution™ and Server Management Suite™ in the near future.
Accurate Inventory Achieved
The biggest benefit the university has realized since implementing TMS has been the
accuracy of its IT inventory. Prior to Altiris,
Howard estimates their inventory information was only 50 to 60 percent accurate.
This was because each individual department was handling their own inventory
collection and there was no policy in place
for how the data should be collected. “Every
department had their own way of doing it,”
Howard said. “Pick your flavor. Anything
you can think of, we probably had a little
bit of that going on.”
Now with Inventory Solution, discovery and
tracking of IT assets has been automated.
Inventory data is taken once the machine
is received from the manufacturer and the
data is managed from a single console, instead of several disparate documents.
Howard estimates his inventory is now approximately 90 percent accurate. Howard
said his team will use this inventory data
Miami has also been able to simplify patch
management processes. After being hit
by the Blaster virus, Miami implemented
temporary measures to protect against
future outbreaks by quarantining infected
machines, preventing users from logging
on to the network.
This approach was frustrating for students
who couldn’t figure out why their computer
wasn’t working and added a lot of stress to
an already stressful situation. “Now with Altiris, we can reduce downtime and improve
security by automating patch management
from a centralized management console,”
Howard said.
SVS Reduces Stress on Students
In the Fall of 2006, Miami plans to rollout
a student notebook program. These notebooks will act as virtual labs for students,
providing access to all of the applications
a student needs for their course of study.
Howard and his team plan to virtualize all
applications and place them on the new
laptops using Software Virtualization Solution™. SVS will provide Miami IT with complete control over the university’s software
applications including instant activation,
deactivation and reset. Also, because the
notebooks will be managed by Altiris software, Howard and his team will be able to
provide students with remote support.
Ultimately, Altiris provides Howard with
the information and automation he needs
to efficiently manage his environment.
“With Altiris, we’re able to understand our
resources and our assets better,” Howard
said. “We can now allocate our resources
more effectively, leading to a better academic experience for both students and
faculty.”
SOLUTION AT A GLANCE
Business Drivers
• IT inventory tracking was tedious and
inaccurate
• Needed to secure thousands of systems to
avoid threats from viruses
• Needed to evolve from a break-fix approach to
a proactive model
Technology Results
• IT inventory accuracy from approximately
improved from 60 percent to 90 percent
• Patch management automated, vastly
improved security
• Time savings allow University to be a more
proactive and strategic organization
Symantec Products
• Altiris® Total Management Suite™
Technology Environment
• Operating Systems: Windows XP, Server 2003,
Mac OS X
• Desktop Brands: Dell, Apple
• Number of Desktops: 10,000
Why Symantec?
• Manage environment from single console
• Flexible Solution
• Automated
“One of the things students dislike most
about our current academic environment
is the specialized labs they have to go to
that are only open certain hours and have
limited space,” Howard said. “Giving students access to the applications they need
on their notebooks will be a huge benefit
to them.”
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