Enhanced IT infrastructure increases server speed and efficiency
A private university in the United States improves the performance and stability of its online administration solution and reduces its average CPU use rate from 80 to 25 percent when it joins forces with IBM Gold Business Partner ITS to repopulate its infrastructure with IBM Power Systems and IBM System Storage technology.
Location: Manchester, New Hampshire
Industry: Education
URL: http://www.snhu.edu
Located in Manchester, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is a private university with a current enrollment of approximately 8,000 students. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in numerous subjects through traditional on-campus courses, evening and weekend classes, and online distance learning. SNHU was founded in 1932.
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) relied on an IBM Power 550 server with internal storage to support online student self-service capabilities such as adding and dropping classes. Unfortunately, system performance degraded significantly during peak workloads, creating long wait times for students. This problem was exacerbated by a growing student population as well as an increased number of employees accessing the system. To improve the performance of its online administration solution, SNHU needed to implement powerful new servers and storage technology.
To address its need, SNHU joined forces with IBM Premier Business Partner ITS. After analyzing the client’s infrastructure, the business partner addressed the system performance issue by implementing an IBM Power 720 Express server running the IBM AIX V6.1 operating system. The new server is supported by POWER7 processors, which help significantly decrease CPU use while improving the performance and stability of the online administration solution. The Power 720 server is attached to an IBM System Storage DS3512 Express disk system, which helps further elevate input/output (I/O) performance by moving the storage workload from four internal server disks to an external 12-disk array.
By joining forces with IBM Gold Business Partner ITS to enhance its infrastructure with IBM Power Systems and IBM System Storage technology, SNHU elevated the performance and stability of its online administration solution. The client reports that the new Power Systems technology reduced its average CPU use rate from around 80 percent to roughly 25 percent. As a result, SNHU expects that the new server will consume less power and yield lower operating costs. Moving forward, the client anticipates that the new IBM technology will easily support the expected steady enrollment growth.
