Qatar University implements Microsoft solutions to enhance educational experience

Microsoft today announced that Qatar University has implemented a variety of Microsoft solutions toenhance the educational experience for its 10,000 students and 1600 faculty and staff. These solutions are an integral part in helping the university to facilitate operational efficiencies and optimizing its IT infrastructure to meet its increased requirements and support its future growth plans.

The university has implemented Windows 7 Enterprise Operating System across its computing infrastructure, which has helped staff and students be more productive in addition to enhancing desktop security, and reducing IT costs.Qatar University is also using the Microsoft Office 2010 suite to provide a more efficient way to manage and organize communications and work collaboratively across its user community.

Qatar University has also deployed Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization technology in a private cloud environment to provide virtual desktops for students in or outside the university. The Hyper–V technology has helped the university to dramatically increase the number of virtual servers available, supporting new applications and providing a robust testing environment.By virtualizing servers, Qatar University has managed to reduce hardware costs by over 30 per cent.

Saeed Al-Athba, Chief Information Officer, Qatar University said, “Our objective was to achieve a dynamic, secure, and scalable computing infrastructure that responds to our expanding needs and provides the best educational experience possible. The out-of-box integration of Microsoft solutions has helped us develop a secure and easy–to-use computing environment.With the help of Microsoft, we have also establisheda solid foundation for future technology projects in addition to reducing licensing and support costs.”

“We are delighted to be working with Qatar University to deliver a superior computing infrastructure for their diverse needs,” said Naim Yazbeck, Country Manager, Microsoft Qatar located at Qatar Science & Technology Park.Through our integrated desktop, communication and collaboration tools, we want to use ICT as a tool to empower students and teachers and transform the educational environment across Qatar University.”

By upgrading to Exchange Server 2010, Qatar University has given its students, faculty, and staff more flexible, reliable communications capabilities with a better email experience. The move to Exchange Server 2010 helped the university build the platform for a unified communications infrastructure that offers a range of flexible communications choices. The university will also soon adopt Microsoft Lync to provide instant messaging and videoconferencing capabilities on every desktop.