Datacom expertise delivers integrated solution
“Datacom’s partnership in the implementation and maintenance of the hosted library management system for LCoNZ libraries has contributed greatly to its success. Datacom staff provide excellent service and have proven to be both knowledgeable and accessible. We look forward to continuing the partnership.” LCoNZ Ltd, General Manager, Jean Ballantyne
Solution snapshot
Customer
Library Consortium of New Zealand (LCONZ)
Industry
Education
Business need
Library Consortium of New Zealand required a shared hardware and software platform for an Information and Resource Access Management System.
Solution
Datacom provided a secure hosted environment (managing system upgrades, backups, system, patching and data security) and has continued to add value over time.
Benefits
• Members have access to a high availability system, contractually specified to meet 99. 99% availability on a 24x7 basis which Datacom has exceeded
• Members can access existing smart tools
• By bringing together multiple customers, significant economies of scale were achieved
• LCoNZ servers hosted in one of Datacom’s state of the art data centres makes adding other institutions or any future replatforming on a cloud computing based service easily accomplished.
Case study
Integrated solution presents challenges
The AUT University, Waikato, Victoria and Otago universities formed a consortium of their four libraries, called the Library Consortium of New Zealand. This was created to significantly streamline processes and maximise efficiencies.
The LCoNZ member universities have 64,615 equivalent fulltime students, representing 47% of all university students, who check out in excess of 4 million items per annum. A total of 625,000 searches are performed on the catalogue every month.
LCoNZ went to tender for a shared hardware and software platform for an Information and Resource Access Management System (IRAMS) in 2002. The universities sought a secure and highly available hosted environment with built in hardware and software redundancy as well as 24x7 support. The environment needed to be fully scalable to add other products and institutions.
Benefiting from hosted infrastructure
To meet these requirements, Datacom designed and provided a high availability configuration that uses load balancing technology to enable multiple lower cost servers to be used at the web and application layer. A separate server provides a complete testing environment. As the environment is shared across four universities the costs are shared and are less than they would be if each institution had their own dedicated hosting solution.
The service is managed by Datacom’s specialist library team who have been working with libraries for 20 years.
Ongoing improvement exceeds expectations
Datacom has continued to add value to the hosted environment, since the initial go live in 2003.
- a read only database solution for the Voyager library system during upgrades.
- a middleware solution allowing students to log into their library profile using details stored on the LDAP servers at each university removing the need for the University to maintain a separate patron database within the IRAMS and keep it up to date with their own patron directory service.
- In 2008, LCoNZ went to market again for hosting the IRAMS as a hardware refresh and new functionality were required and student numbers had grown. Datacom was selected on the basis of the re-platformed architecture proposed and the company’s excellent performance record and proven cost effectiveness.
- In 2009, LCoNZ went live on the new virtualised environment with the added benefit of disaster recovery.
Key points
• Business management and information technology consultancy firm Hexad Consulting Group Ltd compared costs and benefits of being part of LCoNZ; it found the four universities benefited financially and operationally. Datacom’s quality and service levels were cited as one of three key reasons for this.
• Using a shared services hosting model, the Universities achieved a more robust system with higher service levels and lower costs than if they had implemented separate hosting systems.
• Datacom has acquired considerable knowledge of the IRAMS application allowing rapid resolution of issues and the delivery of a very high level of service. Our staff have been formally certified by the IRAMS vendor.
This Case Study for Library Consortium of New Zealand is provided by Datacom.