CommVault selected by Northgate Managed Services to provide data and information management for Europe’s first education cloud

CommVault today announced that Northgate Managed Services (Northgate) has chosen CommVault Simpana software to deliver a range of data management services forEurope’s first Private Education Cloud as part of a collaborative project with C2k to equip schools in Northern Ireland with Internet and other technology services.

The initiative will provide cloud services to 1,200 schools and more than 350,000 teachers and learners. Northgate and CommVault, along with other key vendor partners, will design, implement, manage and support this ‘first of its kind’ cloud environment.

A key aspect of the new service will be to facilitate the increased use of mobile devices. It will also take into account the need for increased bandwidth and data storage, with an emphasis on the centralised hosting of applications and the increasing use of WiFi in networks. As a result, major improvements in the use of digital technologies will be delivered to all schools.

CommVault was ultimately selected by Northgate as a result of its ability to provide a single and integrated solution to Education Network NI, resulting in an improved and manageable operational cost. With its Simpana software platform, CommVault offers a truly optimal solution that delivers robust data management capabilities, including backup and recovery, archiving and anywhere, anytime end-user access to information, made possible through mobile computing and the cloud.

This new solution creates a dynamic, flexible service which provides schools with increased access to learning resources and the ability to collaborate and develop skills which will equip learners for the future. It includes:

Modernised data protection including integrated backup, recovery and archive and search capabilities.

A multi-tenant architecture to deliver shared services and secure, self-service operations for mobile users.

An optimised environment through virtualisation.

Reduced network bandwidth requirements and storage costs through data deduplication and compression.

Security through data encryption.

Northgate's “My-School,” a cloud-based online learning environment, which promotes independent learning, is also included. My-School  allows students and teachers to access their school's on-line systems and applications 24x7, from any device with Internet access, through a pay-per-user licensing agreement that schools can deploy without further investment in IT infrastructure.

“Northgate and C2k are giving teachers and pupils access to the best learning resources available, allowing teachers, pupils and parents to work together to support learning. CommVault’s Simpana software plays a key role in this effort by optimising the utilisation of IT resources and improving access to information for multiple users and groups, including teachers and individual schools in remote sites,” said Nigel Tozer, Business Development Director for EMEA, CommVault. “Simpana software enables C2k to understand and profile user storage consumption at a very granular level in order to identify the data that exists on primary systems and better predict growth to help with future budgeting.”

“The award of this contract is a tremendous achievement for Northgate, CommVault and the other suppliers involved,” said James Turnbull, Managing Director, Sales at Northgate Managed Services. “We chose Simpana software to integrate with our solution, as it offers a flexible and scalable approach to the management of data -- with a comprehensive platform of integrated applications, ensuring we have a system fit for the future.”