Challenge

From hospitals and clinics to public health administrators and universities, a massive amount of data is being generated each and every day. But unlocking the value inherent in it is no easy task since, traditionally, each one of these organizations has independently managed its own applications, electronic document workflows, policies, and procedures, in isolation from the rest.
 

Yet, an advanced Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solution can help to collect, manage, analyze, and visualize all of this data, allowing hospitals and educational institutions to turn data into actionable insights. In addition, powerful storage devices and servers make it easier to process more information faster, using it to improve patient care and the education experience. Although patient data is collected by clinical staff and university lecturers are responsible for teaching students, it’s the Information Technology (IT) department that is often held accountable for access to records. Indeed, ICT best practices enable organizations to connect people and systems quicker and more cost-effectively, improving collaboration and informed decision-making and supporting ongoing improvements in the quality of education and patient care.
 

In 2019, Biruni University built a new campus for an additional 6000 students, with a bold plan to expand the student body to 15,000 in the near future, anticipating future demand for its graduates. Of course, this also required the expansion and upgrade of the existing ICT infrastructure, to provide high performance information-sharing services to the whole university and hospital community, including students, lecturers, and hospital staff.
 

Solution

Working towards its vision, Biruni University needed to ensure that its IT and networking facilities were up to the job. The IT team was tasked with selecting the vendor to create the right ICT infrastructure.
 

Biruni University wanted to work with a company that fully understood its business needs and could share its expertise with the university staff. The IT experts required a proven solution that was already available on the market. Additionally, a vendor with the capability to provide the entire infrastructure was preferred. Specifically, the university needed an ICT infrastructure — comprising servers, storages, firewalls, Access Points (APs), and switches — that could provide a connected, robust, secure, flexible, and scalable environment, enabling staff to work collaboratively.
 

After discussions and testing, DT Cloud — was chosen for this project. The company had demonstrated a proveChallenge.
 

From hospitals and clinics to public health administrators and universities, a massive amount of data is being generated each and every day. But unlocking the value inherent in it is no easy task since, traditionally, each one of these organizations has independently managed its own applications, electronic document workflows, policies, and procedures, in isolation from the rest.
 

Yet, an advanced Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solution can help to collect, manage, analyze, and visualize all of this data, allowing hospitals and educational institutions to turn data into actionable insights. In addition, powerful storage devices and servers make it easier to process more information faster, using it to improve patient care and the education experience. Although patient data is collected by clinical staff and university lecturers are responsible for teaching students, it’s the Information Technology (IT) department that is often held accountable for access to records. Indeed, ICT best practices enable organizations to connect people and systems quicker and more cost-effectively, improving collaboration and informed decision-making and supporting ongoing improvements in the quality of education and patient care.
 

In 2019, Biruni University built a new campus for an additional 6000 students, with a bold plan to expand the student body to 15,000 in the near future, anticipating future demand for its graduates. Of course, this also required the expansion and upgrade of the existing ICT infrastructure, to provide high performance information-sharing services to the whole university and hospital community, including students, lecturers, and hospital staff.

In track record of success. The university chose FusionServer V5 Rack Servers, and OceanStor Dorado All-Flash Storage with VMware virtualization to ensure flexible, lightning-fast, efficient, and reliable data backup and Disaster Recovery (DR). The network solution also allowed the organization to benefit from unprecedented levels of communication and collaboration.
 

Collaborating to Establish a Groundbreaking Solution for a Growing Campus
 

Through years of collaboration, Biruni University was impressed with how easy it was to implement DT Cloud solutions and the high level of customer support offered. So in 2019, it was excited to collaborate with DT Cloud once again to develop the infrastructure for the new campus location. In addition to campus infrastructure, the university data center needed to be upgraded and the hospital’s IT infrastructure renewed.
 

For both the university and hospital, the team decided to upgrade the cloud infrastructure for ICT applications with FusionCube for Cloud, FusionSphere, and FusionStorage Distributed Storage. A hyper-converged architecture — consisting of a fully distributed architecture and an embedded distributed storage engine — now eliminates performance bottlenecks, significantly boosting overall performance. DT Cloud provided a free migration of VMware-based applications to FusionSphere. Moreover, DT created a data center room in the university campus with the FusionModule 800 Data Center Solution and moved the former IT server with VMware to FusionCube and FusionSphere.
 

Series switches were deployed to tackle the exponential increase in the consumption and creation of hospital and university data that had been straining network capacity and scalability. Elsewhere, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) solution offered high-speed wireless access throughout the campus.
 

The IT department wanted to optimize and efficiently manage the network infrastructure to cope with future demand, with the number of ICT users in the university only set to increase. The eSight network management solution and agile controller for end-to-end security and compact autonomous management skills helps make this happen.
 

Outcome
 

Toward the beginning of 2020, the sudden need for quarantine measures and the urgent switch to remote learning forced the university to prioritize a video conferencing solution. As such, DT deployed an e-learning video conferencing infrastructure for Biruni University without any additional investment required. Today, around 10,000 students can connect to the Biruni University campus data center cloud and attend classes remotely.
 

Optimized Infrastructure for Better Patient Care and Education Services
 

Thanks to the long-term cooperation with DT Cloud, Biruni University has gained access to state-of-the-art equipment, with predictable investments. A full-stack solution proved to be the most effective, and ensured a higher level of compatibility between all systems.
 

From setting the project goal to going live, the entire deployment process took only six weeks, ensuring a smooth start to the new academic semester. DT Cloud team withit’s partnersi trained IT experts at Biruni University to get the most out of the new infrastructure. Afterwards, the Biruni IT team achieved better visibility across their entire network and gained a better understanding of their own infrastructure. The IT team is confident that they now know how to manage the solution long-term and can pass on this information to any new employees.
 

By working closely with a single technology partner for all ICT needs, Biruni University has created a sustainable, reliable foundation that enables quick access to secure and accurate data across the entire university and hospital ecosystem. With IT requirements met, Biruni University can now focus on more important goals, such as providing the highest quality of education and healthcare services for all, to retain its position as Turkey’s most comprehensive medical university.