US software vendor Blackboard opens Australian data centre

By Lilia Guan on Feb 22, 2008 3:42PM

US-based Blackboard Inc, a provider of enterprise technology for the education industry has opened an enterprise class data centre located in Mascot, Sydney Australia. This is Blackboard’s fifth data centre globally and was built to cater to Blackboard’s Asia Pacific clients.

The new data centre is designed to host Blackboard software applications and is supported by a full-time team to serve hosted clients.

With the opening of Blackboard’s Asia Pacific data centre comes an agreement with Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNET), owner and operator of a research network. AARNET provides research services to 38 Australian universities and this agreement will allow Blackboard ASP services to host AARNET research along with Blackboard applications at no additional cost to mutual clients.

Jay Robertson, senior vice president of Blackboard ASP and Hosted Services said Blackboard has been offering fully-managed hosted services since 1999 and currently has over 520 ASP clients from a variety of market sectors and implementation sizes with environments that range from a few hundred to over 1 million active users.

“One of the greatest challenges of implementing global teaching and learning strategies is the ability to ensure course delivery around the clock,” he said.
Robertson claimed using a hosted service through Blackboard’s data centres will allow clients to focus on strategic products.

“Clients can shift their focus to strategic projects such as professional development courses for staff, initiatives to foster student engagement, and advancing institutional assessment programs,” he said.