Georgia State University

Success Story

Georgia State University's Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) division wanted to reduce the amount of time spent on routine administration in order to provide more services for its students and staff. With Novell solutions, the university reduced user administration time by 25 percent and can provide reliable, mobile e-mail access for students and staff.

Overview

Located in the heart of downtown Atlanta, Georgia State University has more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students in six colleges. Georgia State is a leading research university in the Southeast, with students from every county in Georgia, every state in the nation and more than 145 countries.

Challenge

Managing student information is challenging for universities, particularly with a growing number of systems and the regular cycles of enrolling and graduating students every year. The IT staff at Georgia State University was spending hours setting up new user accounts and manually updating student information across multiple applications. The university needed an identity management system to automate routine tasks, as well as increase the security of student information.

Many of the university's staff carry handheld devices and want e-mail and calendar access while away from their desks. The IT staff wanted to provide both its students and staff with fast and reliable access to e-mail, regardless of location.

Novell solution

"We have plans to integrate more systems with Novell Identity Manager. Having a single point of user information has not only reduced our administration time, but also helps us safeguard confidential student information."

Sam White
Software Systems Engineer
Georgia State University

To create a secure identity-management foundation, Georgia State University selected Novell Identity Manager and Novell eDirectory. After evaluating several collaboration packages, including Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes, the university selected Novell GroupWise, along with GroupWise Mobile Server and the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

"We wanted to simplify identity management with one place to manage user accounts," said Sam White, software systems engineer at Georgia State University.

Novell eDirectory is the central repository of up-to-date user information for thousands of students and staff. Novell Identity Manager synchronizes user information across the university's databases, student registration and HR systems, as well as several other administrative systems.

"We have plans to integrate more systems with Novell Identity Manager," said White. "Having a single point of user information has not only reduced our administration time, but also helps us safeguard confidential student information."

With synchronized user information across applications, the IT staff can offer students and staff a single ID and password. Users can also access Novell eGuide for a university "white pages" directory to get accurate contact information for students and staff.

The university uses Novell GroupWise to provide mobile access to e-mail, regardless of location or device. Through the combination of GroupWise Mobile Server and the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, staff can access e-mail and calendars from virtually any handheld device, including Treo, Axiom, Palm and BlackBerry. Staff can stay connected without a laptop while attending meetings, traveling or working from home.

"E-mail has become a mission-critical application for us," said White. "If e-mail and calendaring are down, no one is able to get any work done. With Novell GroupWise, we have never had any serious downtime."

The university also uses Novell NetMail to provide e-mail for 70,000 students, improving communication among students and staff.

The university plans to migrate to Novell Open Enterprise Server running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to leverage Linux, while continuing to take advantage of advanced network services such as Novell iPrint and NetStorage.

"We are seeing very good performance with Novell Open Enterprise Server and expect to see even better performance on Linux," said White.

Novell iPrint allows users to easily locate and print to any authorized printer on the network, regardless of location, and will reduce the number of printer-related helpdesk calls. NetStorage provides Internet-based access to files so users can securely access files from any location using a standard Web browser. With Novell Storage Manager, the IT staff will be able to automatically create home directories for its students to store their university portfolio.

The university also uses Novell ZENworks for Servers to gather metrics on usage, uptime, traffic, as well as CPU and memory utilization.

Results

"The use of Novell technologies has allowed our staff to continue to support existing systems and still have enough resources available to offer new services to our campus customers."

Sam White
Software Systems Engineer
Georgia State University

Automating identity management with Novell Identity Manager has reduced user administration time by 25 percent. The IT staff can now create thousands of new user accounts in minutes, rather than days, and remove accounts instantly when students are no longer granted access to the system. The university has also simplified access by providing students and staff with a single ID and password.

With Novell GroupWise running on Novell Open Enterprise Server, the university can provide its staff with reliable access to e-mail, regardless of device or location. The IT staff can manage its upgraded network and mail servers without additional IT personnel.

"The use of Novell technologies has allowed our staff to continue to support existing systems and still have enough resources available to offer new services to our campus customers," said White.