CHAT Academies currently runs five academies in North London, educating over 2,200 pupils. As digital technology is increasingly incorporated into the learning environment, and in the face of more data within the trust, CHAT Academies was looking to transform its approach to data management and futureproof its infrastructure, helping to support its existing network of staff and pupils, and enable the trust to grow.
The upgrade has seen the CHAT Academies IT services team transition from focussing on keeping the infrastructure up and running to becoming a business support team for the trust’s customers. Thanks to the AutoSupport feature automatically resolving technical issues or highlighting problems, the team are able to focus on helping users interact with the system effectively. As a result of the installation, sign-in time for the VDI has also been reduced from four minutes to seconds, dramatically increasing both usability and user satisfaction with the system.
CHAT Academies turned to NetApp and Datatronix to consolidate its entire data landscape, reducing its architecture from four siloed datacentres to one, and overhauling the existing storage area network (SAN) and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) with a new VDI and Data Fabric approach. Working in collaboration with Datatronix, CHAT Academies implemented the new system within 12 months, halving the predicted 24 month timeline for the business’ IT transformation.
Manish Chandaria, CIO, CHAT Academies, said “By bringing all of our data architecture into one, central, unified response using NetApp technology, we are able to demonstrate class-leading approaches to data and digital transformation in the education sector. As a result of this transformation, we are already in conversations with other trusts to lead the discussions on the importance of a successful data approach in our industry.”
Marino Charalambous, CEO, CHAT Academies, added “CHAT Academies is committed to delivering the best possible education for children and we are constantly looking to expand our capabilities to help children achieve success. Working with NetApp has allowed us to do just that, with a flexible approach to data management that will help us to expand our trust.”
Saud Aslam, Director, Datatronix Services Ltd, said “Working with NetApp and CHAT Academies has helped demonstrate how effective successful IT infrastructure can be in driving new approaches to data and better ways of working with education. We look forward to continuing to work with CHAT Academies as it continue its transformation with disaster recovery technology in future.”
