University of Waikato moves to Nutanix hybrid multicloud with ASI Solutions

The University of Waikato in New Zealand said it has halved its IT energy demands by implementing a hybrid multicloud strategy centred on the Nutanix Cloud Platform, in partnership with trans-Tasman provider ASI Solutions.

With 13,500 students and 2500 staff across multiple campuses, including expansive, park-like grounds in Hamilton and a state-of-the-art one in downtown Tauranga, as well as a joint institute in Hangzhou, China, the university faced a critical decision when its previous on-premise IT infrastructure needed renewal.

Glenn Penfold, associate director of architecture and applications, opted for a fresh approach aimed at future-proofing the organisation, mitigating vendor-related risks, and enhancing sustainability.

The university identified that running its own data dcentre had become prohibitively expensive and was diverting focus from adding digital value.

Furthermore, de-risking the impending Broadcom acquisition of VMware, the university's incumbent infrastructure vendor, was a significant factor in the decision-making process.

Following a competitive tender, the university selected the Nutanix Cloud Platform and the Nutanix AHV hypervisor, aligning with its desired hybrid multicloud strategy and energy efficiency targets.

The implementation allowed the university to consolidate its infrastructure needs from 14 physical racks to just seven, significantly reducing power consumption without compromising performance.

While public cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions are preferred where appropriate, certain on-premise infrastructure remains necessary due to data sovereignty requirements and application compatibility issues.

The university uses Microsoft Azure for custom development applications and data integration, while its Learning Management System (LMS) is fully hosted by Catalyst IT.

Nutanix enables application mobility across environments and provides a single pane of glass to manage various cloud types.

The implementation was completed on an aggressive timeline, with zero disruption to services during the university's busiest period.

The success of the project was credited to the university's partnership with local IT solutions provider ASI Solutions.

As part of the modernisation process, the university sold its data centre to ASX-listed Spark NZ, with the primary Nutanix cluster now housed there and a disaster recovery cluster in Auckland.

Waikato is now planning a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure project to enable remote access to high-power graphical processing units (GPUs) for students.

The university is also exploring Nutanix's GPT-in-a-Box solution for future machine learning projects.