IS Applications have just finished work on a project to improve the infrastructure for EUCLID, the University's student record management system. The old infrastructure contained physical servers on both the application and database tiers, both of which were nearing end of life. This project entailed moving the database tier and virtualising the application tier. The server virtualisation will bring efficiencies, improve availability and business continuity. Removing the old servers will ease support tasks. The result is a simplified architecture and consistency for support and security across all environments. As part of this project, implementation of the application tier was carried out using an automated deployment tool. While it only covers the standard software, it is first time such a tool has been used on EUCLID. As a result the deployment of standard software took less than three minutes for all six live, 'empty' application tier servers. Automated deployment reduces the scope for human error, making this and future software deployments more consistent and reliable. This saving in time and effort applies to all the servers in our development, test and live environments. Other benefits of the change include: Managing end of life of the current machines Lower costs: the new infrastructure costs less to buy and maintain. Better support and easier patching. Faster recovery with Active Data Guard and the potential for real time reporting in the future Future scalability Publication date 16 Jun, 2016
