Oracle Customer Success — Paris Lodron University of Salzburg

Paris Lodron University Secures IT Services with Oracle Engineered Systems Power

By deploying Oracle Exadata Database Machine X6-2, we have doubled the performance of our IT infrastructure. We have thus responded to the continuously increasing pressure on our systems, and have secured the quality of IT services for the university in the coming years.

— Florin Guma, CIO, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg

Paris Lodron University Doubles Server Performance to Secure and Continuously Improve Services for Students and Staff

Paris Lodron University Salzburg is the biggest educational institution in the Salzburg region of Austria. The university undertakes innovative research and sees itself as an internationally networked knowledge hub at the heart of Europe.

An Oracle Exadata Database Machine was deployed for these applications in 2012. The objectives pursued at the time—uninterrupted operation, resource conservation, and reduction of the CO2 footprint—were fully achieved. Facing increasing growth and with the undertaking of specialized projects, Paris Lodron University was faced with the task of adapting its IT infrastructure to new requirements.

Challenges

Increase performance and computing capacity of the existing Oracle Exadata environment to such an extent that loss of performance and restrictions on applications or development projects can be ruled out now and in the future—even with continuously growing utilization
Secure the stability of the applications in use, particularly CAMPUSonline, including during peak load times such as during the enrollment period at the start of the semester

Ensure that the new hardware platform would not result in a greater administrative workload despite the desired increase in performance
Ensure that the platform’s deployment costs and total cost of ownership (TCO) do not exceed the university’s budget specifications

Leveraged the outstanding performance of Oracle Exadata Database Machine X6-2 to guarantee that CAMPUSonline and other applications will continue to function without interruption over the coming years, particularly at the start of the semester when several thousand enrollments and registrations for courses have to be processed virtually simultaneously
Enabled Paris Lodron University to double the performance of its IT infrastructure, providing the university’s developers at all times with adequate computing capacity to conduct resource-intensive work during normal office hours, and independently of the other demands being made on the system

Increased business agility by significantly accelerating maintenance and administration tasks, such as restoring a service that is stopped and restarted for updates or maintenance to full availability after just 5 to 10 minutes
Reduced planned downtimes to a significant extent using Oracle Exadata Database Machine’s failover capabilities, enabling the university to update individual applications—that often take 2 or more hours at other universities—in 20 to 40 minutes, thus securing the greatest possible availability of the IT service for students and staff
Maintained TCO at the level of the legacy Oracle Exadata machine despite significant gains in performance and more extensive services
Supported the university’s ongoing efforts to reduce energy consumption and CO2 footprint, and to achieve sustainable and environmentally friendly operations with the excellent energy balance of Oracle Exadata Database Machine X6-2
Leveraged the guaranteed stability of Oracle Exadata Database Machine X6-2 to make an important contribution to Paris Lodron University’s aim of obtaining ISO 27001 certification
Fulfilled all conditions for migrating the organization’s applications and Oracle Databases to the cloud by deploying Oracle Exadata Database Machine X6-2

Oracle Exadata Database Machine was the only option for our mature infrastructure. With the state-of-the-art Oracle Exadata Database Machine X6-2 and support from Oracle Partner DBConcepts and Oracle Advanced Customer Support, we were able to achieve the required increase in performance reliably and affordably, and within a short space of time.

— Florin Guma, CIO, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg

About Paris Lodron University of Salzburg

Headquarters

Salzburg, Austria

Employees

2,800

Paris Lodron University of Salzburg

With more than 18,000 students and some 2,900 staff, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg is the largest educational institution in the Salzburg region and an integrative element of cultural and economic life both in the city and the state of Salzburg. Founded in 1622 by Prince-Archbishop Paris Lodron, it has developed into a modern, vibrant university since its re-establishment in 1962. It offers students a broad palette of courses in 32 fields of study with bachelor and master degrees or diplomas or the option of doctoral studies. Salzburg University moreover delivers an excellent performance in the areas of pure and applied research. The university’s research-led teaching is one of its significant trademarks for young academics.

Partners

DBConcepts has been familiar with our database and server infrastructure for years and has remarkable know-how in this area. We continued to rely on the expertise of our long-standing partner DBConcepts for this upgrade. Their experts joined forces with Oracle Advanced Customer Support to deploy Oracle Exadata X6-2 within the shortest possible space of time and with absolutely no problems,” Guma said.