De Montfort University is anticipating major cost
savings and service efficiencies from using open source Linux as
well as Novell's identity management software.
The university is consolidating its IT management system on to
SuSE Linux and Novell Netware. The system caters for up to 27,000
users, comprising 23,000 students and 3,500 faculty and other
staff.
Like many organisations, De Montfort's IT systems had grown at a
departmental level, and it had a range of operating platforms with
differing levels of service. It needed to consolidate its IT and
manage fewer systems and associated IDs and passwords.
"We were running a variety of operating systems across multiple
locations including NetWare, Linux, Unix and Windows," said IT
director Roy Adams. "Openness and reliability were top priorities
and Linux best met these needs."
De Montfort is deploying Novell's Open Enterprise Server and
identity and access management systems to centralise the management
of users, and adopting Zenworks to streamline management.
Novell Open Enterprise Server is a dual operating system that
includes both NetWare and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server. The product
includes network services such as directory management, clustering
and file and print. Over time, the university will migrate its
existing Microsoft file and printer servers and Solaris systems to
Open Enterprise Server.
Chris Semmens, team leader at De Montfort, said, "We looked at
Microsoft Active Directory and other solutions, but Novell
Edirectory came out on top for scalability, flexibility and the
overall maturity of the directory. We took great care in making
this selection because a global directory is essential for
efficient IT management in a complex environment such as ours."
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