Middlesex University to achieve enhanced business agility with Exponential-e  

Middlesex University has selected British cloud and network provider Exponential-e to enhance research opportunities and learning experiences for students and staff, while driving greater business efficiency. Exponential-e will use its UK based data centres to provide on demand cloud technology, which enables a fast and flexible environment that supports the University’s wide-ranging activities.

“Middlesex University is a global institution and innovator that continuously seeks to utilise technology to enhance learning, teaching and working across its campuses. The use of cloud technology and the managed services Exponential-e provides will enable the University to significantly enrich the student and staff experience,” explained Lee Wade, CEO of Exponential-e.

Using the flexibility provided by the cloud, Middlesex University will be able to easily turn on additional services, such as server provisioning, central processing units (CPU) and network bandwidth to ensure that reliable, modern hardware is underpinning systems and activities at all time. The flexible service provides Middlesex University with the agility to scale services to cater for short periods of time when additional capacity is required, for example, in response to new multi-partner academic research projects. It also means that test and development environments can be scaled back when they are not required to achieve further cost savings.
Spearheading the project is David Lozdan, Head of Public Sector for Exponential-e, who confirmed that: “Moving to the cloud will ensure that Middlesex University can continue enriching the learning and working experience of more than 45,500 students globally and 1,700 staff by easily extending the use of new applications as they become available. Exponential-e will deliver the supporting platforms and services that will enable Middlesex University to concentrate on achieving its vision; to strengthen student achievement, bolster student satisfaction, support leadership and enhance staff performance.”

To deliver a highly secure and resilient platform, the cloud technology is seamlessly integrated into Exponential-e’s wholly owned 100Gig Ethernet network, ensuring that hosted services reside on the clean side of the firewall. Using the network, the University will also gain greater visibility into the activity that is taking place across its infrastructure to better manage its capacity, quickly respond to changing demands and provide robust security incident and event management.

Additional benefits include:

Freeing staff from routine infrastructure tasks so they can focus on supporting new developments and achieving business objectives
Low risk migration to a private cloud that does not require any IP or firewall policy changes
Access to cloud services that are delivered down a single piece of fibre and via a single service level agreement that includes billing, and provisioning
Assured availability of systems in the event of a disaster through geo resilience in the data centre environment
Best practice data centre environmental management in accordance with the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centre Energy Efficiency
Support for rapid testing and development environments for academic research

“We selected Exponential-e as it provides the right balance of cost, risk, flexibility and value for money, and has a reputation built on innovation,” added Paula Vickers, Director Computing and Communications Systems Service at Middlesex University. “We are committed to building a long-term, strategic relationship with Exponential-e to assist us in the flexible provision, support and management of our infrastructure. This partnership will be a vital ingredient in the long-term success of the University and we look forward to collaborating with Exponential-e in the future to enhance the reputation and success of our University.”

“Today’s Higher Education institutions are operating in an increasingly uncertain and competitive market so the need for high quality, agile services is paramount. Middlesex University has already demonstrated its global aspirations through the development of international campus locations, including Dubai and Mauritius,” concluded Wade. “Our managed service offering will ensure that Middlesex University can spend more time dedicated to achieving its vision of becoming the leading university of choice, recognised internationally for excellence in all its activities.”