When 1,350 students, plus dozens of staff and support staff rely on your department to keep their systems running smoothly, the pressure really is on. Until recently, that was the situation facing just a skeleton ICT staff of three people at Doncaster Technology College.
IT manager Zor Khan outlines the challenge. He says: “At the moment, we have 700 PCs and 200 laptops and there are only three of us. We have 502 PCs for students 
and the rest are for staff and support staff. The College has 25 ICT suites so, first thing in the morning, everyone logs on. We have to make sure our systems are working correctly so students can access their work and teachers can as well. The whole College depends on us making sure everything is running well.”
Until recently, Khan’s department was supporting 17 separate servers on site. That included a mail server, online registration server, administration server and printer server. However, after attending a seminar with an account manager from IT provider XMA, Khan decided a dramatic change was in order.
He said: “I decided I wanted to get rid of all of our 17 servers so our systems were all integrated into one big rack. I wanted it to be much faster than our previous servers and so we installed virtualisation software, VMware.”
Centralised solution
Instead of using a separate server for each individual application – and individually having to maintain and manage it, the new solution now integrates all HP servers into a single, centralised, virtual system.
Khan explains: “It’s all centralised so everything is together. If one of the servers has a fault and it’s a hardware issue, our EMC Storage Area Network will 
automatically back it up. A new server is automatically created and, other than a five second delay, it’s not apparent there’s even a problem. The faulty server will be reinstated as well and can be rebuilt. The system can even diagnose the issue.”
According to Khan the virtual solution also carries out load balancing to ensure all applications are working at an optimum level – something that has proved useful, particularly with servers containing large amounts of important data.
There are other benefits too. Khan says: “The VMware means we have been able to cut down on electricity. We don’t need the air-conditioning on 24-7 and we’ve removed all the work benches that held our separate servers and created extra space for our department.”
External support means more time for IT staff
Another key advantage has been the external support that XMA has provided with the new solution. If the system recognises there is a problem, it can automatically call a member of staff from XMA using a SIM card. The engineer can then dial in remotely and sort out the problem – even if no-one is on site at the time.
Khan says: “Before, we didn’t have any external support offer. It has freed up our team to sort out the other problems. All the networking complications can be left to XMA and we can concentrate on issues that our students and staff bring to us. We may have a skeleton staff here but we can get around everything because of the support from XMA. It has helped us out immensely.”
An exceptional provider
For Khan, finding a company he could trust was very important. He says: “XMA supports 
everything we do. They installed all the applications into this network, as well as the VMware server and the SAN. I initially believed they could offer the best solution and they were also the best on quote.
“However, the proof came when we had an issue and our account manager immediately arranged for an engineer to come out within two days. XMA knows our system better than any contractor we’ve had previously and provides the best service. They are exceptional as a company.”
He adds: “I wouldn’t hesitate to use them for future projects and, in fact, I’ve recommended them to people I know at other IT schools as well.”