Japanese University Rolls Out EMC Information Infrastructure

EMC Corporation announced that the Aoyama Gakuin Educational Foundation, a Tokyo-based comprehensive educational institute, has engaged EMC to design and implement a next-generation information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. Using EMC storage, software and services, new IT environment will provide improved operational efficiencies and more secure, reliable access to information critical to the education process. Aoyama Gakuin includes university undergraduate and graduate programs, a women’s junior college, junior and senior high schools, an elementary school and a kindergarten.

Ken Matsuzawa, Chair, Board of Trustees, Aoyama Gakuin Educational Foundation, said: "Information is a core asset of any educational institution. To ensure optimal and efficient information access, we have undertaken one of the largest-scale IT consolidations for a Japanese academic institution. Our new information infrastructure will enable our students and faculty to access and share information and research more freely and reliably with one another and academics worldwide, which will enrich their educational experience. We also will benefit operationally since it will take us less time and resources to manage a centralized IT environment that is more reliable and secure."

Before pursuing this initiative, Aoyama Gakuin managed an IT environment of diverse and disconnected servers and applications that often required operations administrators to individually manage each system. Information storage was spread across different servers, contributing to low and inefficient utilization of IT resources. Because there was limited central oversight of the IT environment, data security issues also were a concern.

Working with EMC Global Services, Aoyama Gakuin is consolidating its enterprise storage on an EMC Symmetrix DMX-4 networked storage system and centralizing its IP storage on an EMC Celerra( NS80G network-attached storage (NAS) gateway.

For disaster recovery, Aoyama Gakuin will use EMC SRDF software and EMC Celerra Replicator software to replicate storage area network (SAN) and NAS data located at its primary data center of head campus to a remote site located at local campus always. The RSA enVision platform will provide automated security and event information management. Aoyama Gakuin is also using EMC Consulting Services expertise to establish log management policies and rules.

The new infrastructure, which is targeted to go into production in April 2009, will enable Aoyama Gakuin to centralize dispersed information storage residing on individual servers onto EMC storage systems. Aoyama Gakuin also implemented a wireless LAN to allow students, faculty and administrators access to the institution’s online resources from any location – on or off campus.

"With a centralized IT infrastructure, we’ll have more efficient utilization of our resources and better economies of scale," said Matsuzawa. "We’ll be able to scale more easily and smoothly to greater capacities and without having to always invest in new systems. And if systems fail, our students and teachers will be able to continue working since our backup site will take over operations. This initiative has strengthened our relationship with EMC and we look forward to additional cooperative projects in technology, as well as academia. We plan to jointly sponsor symposia and invite representatives from EMC Japan to give special lectures or teach university classes."