Case Study   Universiti Technologi Malaysia (Malaysia)   Name: Universiti Technologi Malaysia Location: Malaysia Students: 30,000 Vertical Industry: Education Universiti Technologi Malaysia (UTM) is one of nineteen universities in Malaysia. It is recognised as one of the most prestigious in terms of academic excellence, creative learning and state-of-the-art technology. With an enrolment of 30,000, UTM offers undergraduate and post graduate studies in engineering, information technology and other disciplines, and is Malaysia's center of excellence for global competitiveness through dedication to science and technology. The Challenge To position itself as a center of excellence in science and technology, UTM needed to adopt a holistic approach towards Information Technology in every aspect of its work — from education and research, to publication, management, negotiation, student development and services. It also has to do so in a way that linked the two campuses, starting from the 1,222 - hectare main campus in Skudai, Johore (about 18 kilometers from the city of Johor Bahru) to its 18 — hectare branch campus situated in Kuala Lumpur. In what UTM calls its Cyber Campus project, the University hopes to play its part in supporting Malaysia's national vision to achieve progressive leadership as a developed nation by 2020. The Cyber Campus project at UTM addresses computerization and networking needs in both academic and administrative areas. The Cyber Campus project has three main areas of focus - namely the provision of the communication and network infrastructure, the computer facilities for its staff and students and the design and development of software applications. The university administrative and management personnel need accurate and timely information to execute business processes and be able to make accurate decision, analysis and planning. The management of this information needed to be more effective. Student's learning needed to be supplemented by learning materials that are available at any time and accessible from anywhere. The academic staff and researchers needed to be able to access information in order to keep up with the progress and latest findings related to their respective fields. The Solution UTM has taken the Cyber Campus initiative as a total solution to overcome the issues mentioned above. The upgrading of the campus infrastructure helps support the flow of information in the distributed environment. The e-learning flagship within the Cyber Campus project helps address student learning needs, while the office automation enables business processes to be carried out more efficiently. 3Com helped UTM spearhead the way towards digital academia through the integration of advanced IT into existing systems, using 3Com's radically simple networking tools and solutions. Based around the 3Com® Switch 4007, the solution offers the simplicity of a backbone-in-a-box, high-speed LAN solution, to support new applications, provide guaranteed network availability and help ensure access to the network from virtually anywhere. Through the Cyber Campus project, UTM intends to fully utilize its computing network to handle almost any academic or administrative challenge. The UTM network - which was already based on 3Com products - consists of 8,000 nodes. Due to the growing trend towards Video on Demand (VoD) as well as Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), and the growing user base of students and lecturers employing these technologies, UTM decided to migrate to a Gigabit backbone while implementing new switching solutions. 3Com Partners, NetManage assisted in design and implementation of the backbone and also providing technical support. The Benefits The following are some of the main benefits derived from the Cyber Campus project: To meet the demand of the knowledge workers required in the era of knowledge-based economy. To improve and supplement teaching and learning. To improve the quality, effectiveness and productivity of the administrative and management of the university. To empower the university community towards quality and efficiency. The timely and accurate information enable the management and administration to perform decision making based on knowledge value chain framework To widen the education opportunity to the community in line with globalisation of education. Enable UTM to compete and become a world class university. "We chose to stay with 3Com thanks to its demonstrated performance and resilience in the UTM network, and because its reputation for quality, reliability and support gave us the added edge in delivering services to our users," said Nazri Samino, Head of Networking and Communication Division, Computer Center, UTM.