Adelaide Uni deploys Oracle upgrade

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 06 July 2011 22:40

IT Industry - Deals

The University of Adelaide has upgraded and transformed its IT infrastructure with implementation of Oracle's fusion middleware solution.
{loadposition peterAccording to the university's associate director of technology, Jonathan Churchill, since implementing Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g, the organization has have been able to 'orchestrate and deliver business services that make sense to the users, like students and staff, not just the providers, the IT team.'

'Ultimately it is the user buy-in, which has been very positive, that reaffirms we are well on our way to transforming and achieving our education and technology vision,' Churchill added.

Churchill said that the Oracle SOA Suite 11g and Oracle WebLogic Server 11g have provided a service orchestration layer for the University's new student and staff portals that were deployed to 'streamline access for tens of thousands of users to a range of disparate and heterogeneous systems.

'The deployment has allowed the University to render legacy applications and present the information to users in a user-friendly format. This loosely coupled services layer aims to future proof the University's IT infrastructure and to ensure the performance and scalability of the student and staff portals. For example, when new applications or new versions of applications need to be quickly rolled out they can be plugged in via the services layer.'

Churchill said the University has also deployed the Oracle Coherence in-memory data-grid to scale applications by providing access to frequently used data, and as a result, applications have the ability to perform consistently even at peak times, such as around enrollments and exams.

'The student portal, which was launched last year as the first phase of the Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g implementation, received 18,000 hits and a 96% approval rating from students in the first week. Where previously students had to jump in and out of applications, the University has been able to create a new service experience for students, described by some as 'easy to use as an iPhone.'