Otago University Standardises on Oracle

Otago University Standardises on Oracle

University of Otago Expands Student Services by Standardising on Oracle9i Software Infrastructure

*** Otago plans ahead for collaboration with other universities

Oracle New Zealand, a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL), the world's largest enterprise software company, today announced that the University of Otago has selected Oracle9i Database, Oracle9i Application Server and Oracle9i Developer Suite to expand online services offered to its 18,000 students and 6000 faculty.

The University of Otago is planning to expand the breadth and range of services that students can access through its web-based student administrative system, where more than 80% of students are currently viewing their curriculum and exam results, while also updating personal data online.

The university recognised that it would need to upgrade its software infrastructure so that it could grow as new services were added. The university also projected that the number of students simultaneously accessing these services could double over the next two years.

"On peak days we've had more than 5000 students accessing the student administration system within a 24-hour period," says Martin Anderson, the university's director of information services. "We needed a database that could cope with the increasing demand, and we found that Oracle offered a scaleable and cost-effective solution that could grow as the university grows."

Mr Anderson said the university also chose Oracle9i Database because its built-in connectivity enables the seamless transfer of files to and from other internal systems and external agencies such as government departments or other universities. This will become increasingly important as the university moves ahead with its plans to share a new web-based library management system with three other New Zealand university libraries (Auckland University of Technology, University of Waikato, and Victoria University of Wellington).

"By early next year students will be able to request and search for resources from any of the four university libraries says Mr Anderson, "which means our systems will need to be able to read files from the other universities while also managing the increased demand from the combined student population."

The shared library system, which runs on an Oracle9i Database, will mark the first time that the tertiary education sector has joined forces to work as a consortium to share infrastructure services.

Carol Lee Davidson, Oracle New Zealand's technology manager, says that industries like the tertiary and healthcare sectors are finding areas where sharing data and infrastructure services makes sense, but that organisations need to anticipate the increased user demands that follow.

"When organisations form a consortium to share data then increased user demand is inevitable," says Ms Davidson. "Oracle9i infrastructure software is the only secure, reliable and scaleable solution that can manage organisational growth and that does not need to be modified as new users are added. There is no question that Oracle is able to deliver the fastest database to the widest user base at the lowest costs."

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