Jakarta University Taps IBM Smarter Computing

IBM Corp. announced that The Sunan Kalijaga Islamic State University
(UIN) Yogyakarta has adopted IBM’s smarter computing approach to IT to improve
the quality of the education process through collaborative learning services.

Founded in 1951, UIN is a private universities in
Central Java with a student population of more than 15,000 from across
Indonesia. To keep pace with the growing demands of the academic community –
which is the heart of nation’s competitive engine – UIN turned to IBM Global
Technology Services to build a smarter computing infrastructure. The technical
goals were to streamline learning processes, improve the economics of the
administration system and increase overall computing and data storage
utilization.

"We have been working on
ways to increase the university’s quality and involvement in solving the
nation’s problems through scientific approaches and advanced technologies for a
number of years," said Agung Fatwanto, head of IT department, at Sunan
Kalijaga Islamic State University. "With
this project we wanted to simplify our IT environment and at the same time
enable it to provide learning and administrative services in a combined and
collaborative manner, sharing processes and technology within the campus and
online."

At the heart of the new infrastructure are IBM BladeCenter server systems and IBM Storwize V7000 Unified Storage Systems,
all integrated with the university’s existing infrastructure through
integration services from IBM GTS.

The BladeCenter system offers energy efficiencies and
takes up less floor space than traditional server systems. Storage
solutions like IBM Storwize V7000 help customers free up shrinking IT budgets
through automation, storage virtualization, and cloud-based storage while
managing data growth.

In addition, the V7000 System Storage Easy Tier technology
helps optimize system efficiency by automatically placing data at the
most strategic storage level. For example, more commonly used data is placed on built-in SSDs for fast access, while less
frequently accessed data is placed on more cost-effective storage systems – all
without disruption to applications.

IBM GTS’s Networking, Site and Facilities Services focus on
designing, implementing and managing networking and application environments
optimized for integrated business communications, a necessity in a large campus
like UIN’s Sunan Kalijaga.

One of the early byproducts of the new infrastructure is UIN’s first
e-learning curricula for selected science, technology and science education
subjects, which was rolled out at the beginning of 2012. The technologies have
also helped the university manage peaks in
utilization, during such times as registration of new students, course
enrolment, exam schedule postings, grades posting and graduation enrolment –
all times when students access the system in droves.

The new IT infrastructure has also improved UIN’s administrative
capacity by enabling students to register online without glitches or delays. As
online activity increased another hot issue for university management was
relieved – limited on-campus parking and study room availability.

"From New York to Jakarta
to Beijing, education is the engine of economic growth," said Fetra
Syahbana, country manager, Systems and Technology Group, IBM Indonesia. "Whether we are talking about  transportation systems, smarter cities or
green energy, the discussion should always begin with education. IBM’s smarter
computing approach to IT is helping UIN Yogyakarta realize greater
efficiencies, improved reliability and better performance, all at a lower cost.
We strongly believe that this project will support UIN Sunan Kalijaga
Yogyakarta in enhancing the experience it offers its student and faculty
population."