Kyndryl migrates Macquarie Uni over to hybrid AWS cloud

Kyndryl has moved Macquarie University over to an Amazon Web Services- (AWS) powered hybrid cloud set-up as part of the university’s digital transformation.

Conducted over a four-month period, Kyndryl transitioned the university over to the new environment as it needed to improve its on-premises IT infrastructure to enhance its flexibility in scaling data centre resources independently.

It also wanted to increase resource visibility and pursue automation with a new infrastructure-as-a-service “virtual data centre”, or a cloud-based equivalent of a physical data centre.

During the migration, Kyndryl worked with Macquarie University to cut down the number of virtual machines being migrated to the VMware Cloud on AWS environment by 50 per cent. It then migrated 480 virtual machines that support foundational and critical applications like finance, customer relationship management and student support software.

Additionally, Kyndryl implemented AWS tools focused on cyber resiliency, disaster recovery for critical business applications, automated cyber threat detection, and cyber security monitoring.

As a result, Kyndryl claims the university can provide “easier” access to learning materials, as well as “seamless” on-campus and virtual experiences for over 40,000 students and 3,000 staff members, which includes a faster approach to exam scheduling, class timetabling, accelerated access to academic resources, and training for employees.

While this migration has finished, Kyndryl’s work with the university is not over as it continues to manage the university’s VMware Cloud environment during its ongoing digital transformation.

Jonathan Covell, chief information and digital officer for Macquarie University Group, said the collaboration with Kyndryl and AWS was essential in “driving our digital strategy forward to create a connected university with a strong service delivery culture”.

“From application and acceptance to learning and networking, the student journey looks different for everyone. With the agility of AWS, we are able to prioritise making the experience for both students and teachers as frictionless a possible, which means we can better focus on attracting and retaining students and continuing to lead as a digital, internationally competitive university. By working with Kyndryl and AWS, we have established a solid foundation to achieve this,” he said.

Ashish Kumar, president for Kyndryl Australia and New Zealand, added that the company was proud to be involved in what he labelled was a “critical” phase of the university’s transformation.

“Kyndryl’s expertise in modernising mission-critical workloads and strong collaboration with AWS has already delivered positive results for the university, and we’re looking forward to achieving more milestones together in the future as the university positions itself for the next step into cloud native delivery,” he said.

Last month, Kyndryl struck a global partnership with internet and application security solutions vendor Cloudflare.