DiData sells $330K of Cisco kit to Catholic schools

Dimension Data has signed a $330,000 contract with the Catholic Education Network for the provision of data centre infrastructure using Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS).

UCS, which combines server hardware, virtualisation software and networking components into a single system, promises to reduce costs by cutting out the need for many traditional hardware components required in the data centre.

The new infrastructure is to be used to virtualise the education network's server infrastructure and prepare it to provide shared services to educational institutions and classrooms across fifteen Catholic education systems in Australia.

"Architecturally, the solution has set us up to be able to provide IaaS [Infastructure as a Service] to any of our members 'on-tap' - as well as provision those systems more nimbly than before," Cathloic Education Network solutions architect, Glen Gibson said in a statement.

Dimension Data said the education network needed to refresh its server platform to deliver infrastructure and application services more efficiently to its members after rapid growth from three to fifteen dioceses in the last five years.

The Federal Government's Digital Education Revolution initiative for schools was also driving the use of more computers in classrooms, Dimension Data said, and in turn the requirement for more server computing power.

The contract covered the supply of product, support services and professional services, Dimension Data said. The education network was Dimension Data's first Cisco UCS customer in Australia.