Educational organizations are among the most treasured institutions internationally  and are highly competitive with regard to funding, rankings, and scholastic excellence. International School Bangkok (ISB) is no different.

Established in 1951, ISB has a proud heritage of providing quality education. It serves 1,900 expatriate students from over 50 countries residing in the greater Bangkok area for pre-university levels ranging from elementary and middle school to high school. 

ISB is recognized as the pioneer and leader of international schools in Thailand with a vision that includes academic excellence and experienced teachers set in a serene natural environment. Moreover, ISB gives high priority to educational technologies and has implemented innovative educational coursework in this area.

To date, ISB is equipped with 1,400 PCs and notebooks or approximately two PCs per three students. As each computer can be connected to wireless Internet across the campus, students can learn, research and work on their projects at all times. In all classrooms, smart boards are available to provide interactive connection to computers. This allows teachers to explain the lessons or offer new knowledge via multimedia from Internet-based systems or other resources to the whole class simultaneously. ISB has adopted an e-Learning system as a teaching medium to allow teachers and students to gain access to the central unit and instantly use data through online educational processes.

ISBs progressive vision incorporates new technologies and massive amounts of data. As multimedia data comprising data files, pictures, voices and video becomes more vital to the teaching and learning processes, the requirement to back up these tremendous amounts of data costs ISB 24 hours.

ISB decided to switch its storage and disk backup in the format of a SAN solution, which can store tremendous audio and visual data with lower total cost of ownership (TCO) while supporting the implementation of an e-Learning system in the future. It settled on a platform that would deliver sophisticated virtualization, tiered storage management and exceptional administrative tools, making the focus of ISB IT the betterment of academic research and improvement of the student experience.

Stephen Lehmann, Director of IT at ISB, explains, It is costly and time-consuming for us to back up huge amounts of data, so we must look for a new storage solution to serve the increasing data and minimize the backup time. Our previous solution was in tape format, which requires a long time to back up. This took days for system administrators. Moreover, the maintenance cost was high and the result was unreliable.

Critical data is ubiquitous on the International School Bangkok campus, and it is the job of Lehmann and his team to manage it. From online homework assignments and online teaching instruments to social networking and community interaction through opensource logging software, the new implementation needed to provide the reliability, performance and capacity that are instrumental to managing ISB data.

But, the existing tape system at ISB made backing up large amounts of critical data costly and time-consuming. In order to meet the growing data needs of ISB, as well as minimize backup time and costs, Lehmann and his team set out to find a more scalable and reliable system. 

After attending an Acer/Hitachi Data Systems Customer Solutions Interactive Workshop, ISB decided on a platform that would leverage all new hardware, software and services to better the academic experience for ISB faculty and students. The school selected Hitachis Adaptable Modular Storage 200 System coupled with the Hitachi Data Protection suite software (powered by CommVault®) offering the high performance and data protection needed to maintain the progressive vision of the school. 

Mr. Lehmann concluded, Our storage solution is an indispensable part of a futuristic educational system, as all teaching and learning data will be stored in electronic format to allow quick search and instant use. Schools are no longer needing tons of paper.
A storage solution is one of the key factors required to implement an e-Learning system at ISB. This system allows teachers and students to quickly access to and use data for the online educational process. It will be one of the tools that ISB will use to enhance our academic excellence.

Yes

Yes

The implementation of the new architecture at ISB has significantly benefited not only the IT department, but also the faculty and students that depend on it daily.

From the IT perspective, the new architecture has dramatically increased the ease of management, allowing the IT staff to spend valuable time focusing on more critical IT needs.

Previously, we had one staff member focused entirely on maintaining our storage system. This meant a nightly backup that ran from 11pm to 6am in the morning  entirely too long, says Lehmann. Our new SAN architecture basically manages itself  we now have another set of hands to help with our other technology needs.

Says Lehmann, The performance is impressive; it takes less time to back up data, as one terabyte of data can be completed within 12 hours, instead of 24 hours. This allows system administrators to take more time on IT system management around the campus.

For students, the high-performance and scalability of the system means that their educational opportunities through online learning platforms and technology tools can develop with the curriculum. Because of the new system, student information and course management  among other things  are all tied into a reliable and efficient storage device, allowing the campus as a whole to enjoy an improved IT experience. The students, for example, are enjoying a greater amount of personal storage, important for this age of digital media.

N/A

For ISB, the exceptional aspects of the new implementation extend across the campus. 

For the IT team, the unique approach to data protection and scalability offered by the combination of the AMS200 and the Hitachi Data Protection Suite software freed up time via self managing  taking shorter time to back up data. This allows system administrators to take more time on IT system management around the campus.

Our technology learning tools are incredibly helpful to students, but have led to a incredible amount of storage requirements and backups for our IT staff, says Lehmann. With the Hitachi solution, our centralized storage incredibly flexible  we can add storage when needed and we can back up very easily.

For students and faculty, the system allows the curriculum to focus on the most innovative and useful e-tools to supplement student education at ISB. Currently, ISB has implemented the system to support the storage needs of their educational technologies.

Based on Hitachi technology, the new platform has delivered significant cost savings and performance gains for the university, allowing for a better all-around academic experience. 

An added benefit for the school is the cost savings resulting from the centralized SAN system. We had storage in many places, and our costs were very, very high. We had 20 servers  each with their own storage system. By centralizing and consolidating our storage, weve seen great cost benefits, says Lehmann.

The implementation also included an eco-friendly element. Because much of the class work and instructional tools are accessed through an online system, the school has experienced a decreased reliance on hardcopy documents  meaning less paper and less trash.

N/A

N/A

Exceeded

Already a visionary in education, the high priority that ISB places on educational technologies and educational coursework has established the schools position as innovator in the field of education.

By implementing a system that supports the growth and development of the students and the curriculum, ISB is insuring that students will continue to have the tools they need to reach the highest level of academic achievement. 

With much of the world rapidly embracing online technologies, more and more top educational institutions will inevitably move towards embracing educational and social networking technologies on campus. With the success of ISBs SAN technology implementation to support these needs, they stand as a role model for other institutions looking to create a similarly reliable and accessible storage system.

Thanks to the easy and quick installation by Acer of the Hitachi adaptable Modular Storage 200 system and Hitachi Data Protection Suite software, students, faculty and IT staff alike were able to embrace the benefits and innovation of the new architecture almost immediately.