Customer Solution Case Study
/ Educational Institution Optimized IT Management, Cost Savings with New Operating System
Overview
Country or Region: Karnataka, India
Industry: Education
Customer Profile
Manipal University is one of the top ranked universities in the country. A knowledge powerhouse and a brand name in higher education, the university provides the finest in education to over 16,000 students every year.
Business Situation
To prepare for future growth, Manipal University aims to provide latest technology to its students. They desired a solution that would reduce the task of IT help desk, improve IT management, allow students to trouble shoot and enhance security.
Solution
Manipal University has become on of the early adopters of Windows® 7 operating system. The OS is functional in 3000 computers and plans are on to extend it to 5000 more in few months time.
Benefits
· Enhances data security and network protection with significant saving
· Simplifies data sharing / “Windows 7 has been by far the most superior operating system we have seen from Microsoft. It has especially benefited our roaming student community users who demand for a secure and faster computing environment.”
Balakrishna Rao, CIO, Manipal University
Located in Karnataka, India, Manipal University is a deemed university and one of the finest institutions in the country that is recognised for imparting high quality professional education. It is an ISO 9001:2000 certified university that always tries to provide its students with the latest technologies and excellent infrastructure. Therefore, when Mr. Balakrishna Rao, CIO, Manipal University learned about the Windows® 7 operating system, the university became one of its early adopters and immediately shifted 3000 users to the same. After the pilot program is complete, there are plans to shift another 5000 users within a few months time to benefit from improved IT management, faster deployment, enhanced security, greater efficiency, and increased power management.
Situation
Founded in 1953, Manipal University also known as MAHE, Manipal Academy of Higher Education is recognized for imparting high quality professional education. It is a name to remember, not just across the length and breadth of India, but worldwide. The fact thatstudents from 52 countries are studying here is a testimony to this fame. The university believes in providing the finest in infrastructure and facilities to its students when it comes to learning and research. They provide world-class environment that supports education.
With 20 constituent colleges that offer over 195 courses across 14 streams, Manipal University is very customer centric and believes in providing its students access to latest technology. There are approximately 16,000 resident students. Including the faculty, administration and students, the campus has a count of more than 8000 laptop and desktop users. As one of the leading education providers in the country, the management at Manipal University sees it as its prime responsibility to provide the latest and best of solutions to its students.
MAHE desired a more consistent and connected experience for the number of computers and laptops used on daily basis. They preferred to work intuitively and reliably, while the information remains private and secure.
“Security and manageability are the major factors that we consider when we roll out our Desktop Operating System,” explains Sathish Kamath, IT Head, Manipal University. “Our students’ community works largely in groups and therefore, connectivity to secure network is a must.”
Sathish continues, “Manipal is a wireless city and Manipal University a wireless campus. Students can connect to the internet from anywhere in the campus. We were looking for an operating system that facilitates such connectivity seamlessly without much IT intervention.”
Solution
To tackle the situation, Manipal University was anxiously awaiting the release of Windows 7, an operating system known for its excellent mobility, performance and security features. Moreover, Windows 7 fits the bill when it comes to connecting and traversing between wireless and wire line networks perfectly.
In 2009, when Windows 7 operating system was released, MAHE grabbed the opportunity to become an early adopter of the system to improve security, reliability, networking and users’ experience. The pilot lot was immediately deployed on 3000 computers but the hunger for enhanced performance didn’t die. With the exponential success and brilliant results of Windows 7, the management now has plans for another 5000 installations by the mid of 2010.
Pilot users reported an enhanced user experience, thanks to new features, Direct Access and BitLocker. These features are excessively used by a large segment of the users who are students, mostly roaming. “Since we would want to give our students, access to our Student Applications even from their homes with minimal impact to our IT Budget, Windows 7 has come in handy and quite useful with all those security features without the requirement of VPN,” states Balakrishna Rao, CIO, Manipal Education.
Benefits
With great respite, Sathish states “Upgrading to Windows 7 has reduced our IT management, enhanced network protection, security measures and even enhanced the computer performance. The calls to IT help desk have reduced drastically. What more can we ask for?”
Enhances Data Security and Network Protection with Significant Saving
Manipal University offers a range of distant learning programmes and thereby all the course material, tutorials, papers and other sensitive data are available online. Windows 7 offers enhanced built-in security features such as data encryption technologies.
With BitLocker and BitLocker To Go features, guarding online data is easier. The management need not worry about content security, phishing and malwares. “By using BitLocker and BitLocker To Go, we expect to save considerably as the investment on third party security applications is not required,” says Sathish Kamath, IT Head, Manipal University.
Manipal University is benefiting from built-in security features in Windows 7 and the Windows Internet Explorer 8 internet browser (included in Windows 7) that help safeguard users’ PCs especially students’ own PCs, which are not always protected by the mechanisms that help secure the campus’s network. “When students are behind our firewall, they’re fairly well protected,” says Sathish Kamath, IT Head, Manipal University. “However, when they go home for break, they come back with all kinds of PC infections. Features such as Windows Defender in Windows 7 and the new SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer 8 help keep students’ PCs more secure. Not only is this beneficial to students, but also it reduces the burden placed on our support staff.”
Deployment of Internet Explorer 8 also is delivering a more reliable Web browsing experience. “Tabbed browsing was a great enhancement in Internet Explorer 7, and the new tab isolation and automatic tab recovery features in Internet Explorer 8 further enhance the experience,” says Sathish Kamath. With tab isolation, if a web site or add-on causes a tab to stop responding, only that tab is affected. The browser itself remains stable and other tabs remain unaffected. With tab recovery, if one or more tabs close unexpectedly, the tabs are automatically reloaded.
Simplifies Data Sharing
Control by Advanced Group Policy features is another key differentiator.
Using HomeGroups students can setup their own ad hoc networks and collaborate, share documents, videos etc. across the computers. At the same time, “Share with” option allows easy data sharing between two or more computers. With Windows Live Essentials students can take back-up of their data on Skydrive (25 GB of free space), manage and share their photos using Windows Live Photo Gallery, and e-mail offline using Windows Live Mail.
Balakrishna Rao, CIO, Manipal University says, “We spare no cost when latest technology is in question. And we are really glad that we opted for Windows 7 for we are reaping with the benefits of power management, time management and stringent security features.”
He concludes, “Windows 7 has been by far the most superior operating system we have seen from Microsoft. It has especially benefited our roaming student community users who demand for a secure and faster computing environment. “
Windows 7
Faster and more reliable: Window 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to be more productive anyway. You will be able to support your mobile work force with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies to enhance corporate IT security, data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.
For more information about Windows 7, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7