In an effort to better serve students, faculty and staff, Austin Community College teamed up with IBM to update its technology and increase the college’s technical infrastructure. IBM assisted ACC in an enterprise server consolidation project that combined several applications from four independent computer servers to only one IBM server. This upgrade not only increased the speed of the delivery of ACC’s web-based and campus-based services, but also reduced its hardware maintenance and operating costs.

The rapidly growing number of students enrolling at ACC, up more than 19% since 1993, has increased the amount of data that the ACC Information Technology environment must manage and support. That is why ACC chose to implement an IBM eServer pSeries 670 server running AIX 5L.

The consolidation enabled the college to offer services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is expected to save ACC nearly $50,000 a year, especially in the area of student grading. Faster online processing has allowed faculty to submit end-of-semester grades via the web, rather than on optical scan sheets.

“This project has put ACC on the cutting edge of providing high performing services to faculty and students,” said Bill Carter, Associate Vice President of

Information Technology. “The IBM p670 server’s best attributes are its constant availability and the ability to share memory and processor power among applications. Plus, if there’s ever an issue, the server automatically alerts IBM,

and they are on-site promptly with a solution, without having to bring down the machine.”The system improvements provide ACC students with the ability to look-up courses and register online faster. They also make it easier for faculty to access up to the minute rosters and post end of the semester grades online. Staff benefit from server consolidation as well, by being able to access student records more efficiently.

The IBM p690 server gives ACC’s IT department the confidence of knowing that information is secure, and that services can be provided 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
About ACC:

Austin Commmunity College offers affordable, quality education and training to Central Texas residents. Founded as an open-door institution in 1973 with only 1,793 students, Austin Commmunity College has grown into a diverse, six-campus institution that serves more than 30,000 students a semester. ACC offers associate degrees and certificates in more than 140 areas. The college also plays a vital role in training the local workforce. Healthcare and social services professionals such as police officers, fire fighters and nurses receive state-of-the-art training at the college. ACC continues to be the top transfer institution in the area.

About IBM:

IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across
IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services,
solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take
full advantage of the new era of e-business on demand. IBM’s Austin site has 6,300 employees who focus primarily on research and development for microprocessors, server hardware and systems software. For more
information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com.