University of Manchester selects PRIMEPOWER and PRIMERGY servers to drive services for up to 43,000 staff and students

- £2 million order for PRIMEPOWER and PRIMERGY servers will provide networked e-mail, personal file storage, powerful back-up capabilities, and 24x7 99.999 per cent availability

- Will enable University to reduce number of e-mail servers from 60 to six with estimated cost savings of more than 50 per cent

Fujitsu Siemens Computers, the leading European vendor of secure Business Critical Computing and Mobility solutions, has won a major £2 million order for its PRIMEPOWER SPARC/Solaris-based UNIX servers and Intel-based PRIMERGY servers from the University of Manchester. The systems will be implemented across the whole of the University of Manchester campus, university-linked NHS sites and business parks to provide up to 43,000 users with networked e-mail and personal file store services. The new IT infrastructure will also supply the University with powerful back-up and recovery capabilities, and 24x7 99.999 per cent availability.
 
Fujitsu Siemens Computers will supply all the equipment for the overall solution comprising Fujitsu Siemens Computers PRIMEPOWER SPARC/Solaris-based UNIX and Intel-based PRIMERGY servers, the Oracle Collaboration Suite enterprise-class email and communications tool, a SAN fabric and storage array from EMC Corporation, and a tape library system from StorageTEK. This includes three PRIMEPOWER PW-650 servers, two PRIMERGY T850 eight-way systems and two PRIMERGY R450 servers. Fujitsu Siemens Computers has also supplied 18 Intel-based PRIMERGY servers to enhance the University's existing Netware-based systems. The University is merging with UMIST (the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) in the autumn of 2004 and it is intended that the new system will provide services for the new institution, as well as providing a vehicle for collaborative working during the merger process.
 
Tony Arnold, Project Manager on behalf of the Director, University of Manchester commented: "There is a steadily increasing demand for off-campus access to services as students and staff continue to travel from outside the area and more distance learning students come on board. E-mail in particular has become a business-critical service. Improving the reliability of this to 99.999 per cent is a key goal and is set to have a huge impact on user satisfaction. In the past a lack of reliability could lead to lost opportunities for student and staff recruitment, lost opportunities for research grants and high levels of user frustration. A small inefficiency in key services when magnified through our 33,000 users - 43,000 after the merger - can result in a very high cost to the Institution."
 
Tony Arnold continues: "Students and staff need to access services at any time of day and night and from anywhere in the world. Consequently, the University wishes to move to '24x7' availability of services. The Fujitsu Siemens Computers solution will enable us to offer such a service. We chose this solution following a European tender process in which Fujitsu Siemens Computers not only demonstrated the best understanding of our requirement but also offered the best value for money. By working with Fujitsu Siemens Computers, we can maximise the reliability of our services to achieve 99.999 per cent availability, positioning the University of Manchester as a globally competitive institution offering world-class services."
 
About the University of Manchester:
The University of Manchester grew from its humble beginnings as Owens College in 1851 to become the first of the UK's great civic universities. As a full-range university it now has courses covering almost every subject, and has more than 18,000 full-time students, including 2,500 international students, from over 120 countries. The University has more than 70 departments involved in teaching and research, with more than 2,000 academic staff.
 
The University of Manchester has a proud tradition of innovation and excellence which continues today. Some of the key scientific developments of the century have taken place here. Rutherford conducted the research which led to the splitting of the atom in Manchester and it is nearly 50 years since the first modern computer was built here.
 
About Fujitsu Siemens Computers:
Fujitsu Siemens Computers is the leading European computer company, supporting customers' growing demands for Business Critical and Mobility solutions. The company draws on the strengths and innovation of its parent companies - Fujitsu Limited and Siemens AG - who have a joint R&D spend equivalent to €9 billion per year. Fujitsu Siemens Computers provides its customers with one of the industry's most comprehensive IT product ranges - from PDAs through to the data centre - giving them the choices they need to make real IT infrastructure savings. The company offers Solaris-based PRIMEPOWER UNIX servers for the data centre, best-in-class PRIMERGY Intel-based systems, and a full range of enterprise storage solutions. Fujitsu Siemens Computers is also one of the leading providers of professional PCs, workstations and secure mobile computing products - including PDAs, notebooks and Tablet PCs - to business customers, and is Europe's leading supplier of PCs for home users and small offices.
 
For further information, please visit: www.fujitsu-siemens.com.
 
UK Press Office
Marisa Reynolds / Emeshe Coop
Fujitsu Siemens Computers
Tel: 01344 475811
E-mail: ukpressoffice@fujitsu-siemens.com