Universities Gain Degrees of Success with Iomega® Zip® Drives
The primary business of a university is teaching and learning. However, in order to maintain prestige and reputation, universities must undertake this business in the most effective way possible. This not only means being equipped with adequate resources, but also having access to state-of-the-art technology.
In today's ever-changing technological environment, the need to keep up with the latest developments is fast becoming one of the biggest challenges facing Australian universities. University students must be able to work with, and understand the world of computers in order to be able to successfully complete their degrees and make a successful entry into the work force.
From the inner city of Sydney to the foot of the Blue Mountains, university campuses all over Sydney are looking at ways to address these challenges. With the growing size of student population and Information Technology resources, one of the major issues is data storage. As centralised storage is not a feasible option for most universities, issues such as compatibility, transportability and security, are leading most universities to a storage solution based on Iomega® Zip® drives and disks.
With a combined student population of more than 40,000, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the University of Western Sydney, Nepean (UWS Nepean) are two campuses that are integrating Iomega® Zip® drives and disks into their computer laboratories in order to provide students with a reliable and portable data storage system.
UTS's mission is to provide the best learning, teaching and research programs for its students. With more than 250 undergraduate and postgraduate programs spread over four campuses around Sydney, UTS covers a broad spectrum of disciplines ranging from Design and the Arts to Information Technology, and Business. With an emphasis on real world experience, UTS provides services that anticipate and respond to community needs and address the effects of social and technological changes.
UWS Nepean has six campuses spread over Western Sydney, offering courses designed to equip students with the knowledge, skills and desire for lifelong learning and to prepare them for professional practice and a competitive future in the work place. Its teaching is informed by contemporary research and the university prides itself on offering access and training in technology relevant to each field of study.
With both universities experiencing a growing reliance on technology, the need for an effective data storage system is paramount.
"Due to the sheer number of students involved, and the resultant cost, we cannot provide permanent on-site storage of data files for students" said Mr. Chris Cahill, User Services Manager, Information Technology Division of UTS.
"Therefore we need a system which is flexible enough for individual students to be able to manage their work independently of anything centrally driven," said Mr. Cahill. "The storage system also needs to be transferable so that it can be used on other computers at home, at work or anywhere students need access to their information. The Iomega Zip drive is the perfect solution for our needs."
UTS has nearly 300 Iomega® Zip® drives in its general purpose labs, and they have come to play an important role in the way students manage their data. Similarly UWS Nepean has Zip drives connected to more than 90 percent of its general access computers. Countless Zip drives can also be found in other specialized areas of the university.
"Zip drives have become the industry standard for storage within specialized areas such as design and media production, where large capacity storage options are needed, " said Mr. Mick Houlahan, Director of Information Technology Services for UWS Nepean. "For this reason we thought it would be very important that students are exposed to the technology and gain an understanding of how it works and what it offers."
"We also needed a storage solution that would provide our students with reliable low-cost storage. Although we looked at other options, there was already such a high penetration of Zip drives in our design school and other specialist labs that it made sense to maintain this compatibility."
Compatibility was also an important consideration at UTS when the university was looking to implement a removable storage solution.
"We didn't feel the need to look at other options as Zip drives allow students to store their data in an easy and portable way and the Zip drive is the undisputed leader in this market," Mr. Cahill said. "With more than 32 million Zip users worldwide, the students are sure to be exposed to Zip drives at some point in their career. The other advantage is that with such a large installed customer base, Zip disks are available quite cheaply anywhere, even in the university's computer shop."
Mr. Cahill and Mr. Houlahan agreed that another consideration behind the installation of Zip® drives was its efficient capacity.
"As students use increasingly sophisticated software programs to complete more complicated tasks, they need to be able to work with large files, in an efficient manner. This is particularly important in areas like design where image files can be up to 8MB. Floppy disks and other storage methods just aren't an option," said Mr. Houlahan.
"The problem with using floppy drives was that students would continually have to carry around a whole collection of disks and flip between them constantly. The 100MB and 250MB capacity of Zip disks make them an ideal portable storage solution for students as they allow them to consolidate their work on just one or two disks. This makes it easier for them to manage their work rather than the numerous floppy disks it would take to back up some large files," said Mr. Houlahan.
Zip® drives also helped both universities address potential problems arising from the Y2K Bug. Early last year, the IT division of UTS e-mailed all students, alerting them to the possibility of information loss with the New Year. They advised all students to make back-up copies of their work on Zip disks.
"Like most organisations we have done a lot of work on Y2K in the last few years. We were in a good position to overcome any problems, but there couldn't be any guarantee that absolutely nothing was going to fail," said Mr. Cahill. "To prevent any New Year headaches for our students, we advised them to back up on Zip disks. After all we'd rather be safe than sorry when it comes to documents that students have worked on all year. It's only with Iomega Zip drives and disks that we could offer such complete security."
|
