SunGard Higher Education Announces New Unified Digital Campus Test Center Using Dell and Sun Microsystems Technologies to Help Accelerate Product Development and Lower Total Cost of Ownership
Hardware Reference Platforms Will Help Establish Optimal Technology Configurations and Ease Customers’ Ability to Deploy Banner UDC Environments
MALVERN, Pa., Nov. 5, 2007 — SunGard Higher Education (www.sungardhe.com) today announced the creation of a state-of-the-art Unified Digital Campus Test Center (UDC Test Center) to simulate customers’ real-world technology environments and use of the Banner Unified Digital Campus. Dell (http://www.dell.com) and Sun Microsystems (http://www.sun.com) were selected to help establish the reference platforms that will be used to optimize the applications, technology configurations, and hardware associated with the Banner Unified Digital Campus and to help deliver the lowest possible total cost of ownership (TCO) for customers.
The UDC Test Center moves beyond existing product and performance testing to assess full-scale configurations that reflect current IT environments and interoperability challenges facing higher education today. The comprehensive environment will use the latest hardware and operating systems from Dell and Sun together with SunGard Higher Education applications, technology, and third-party products in various configurations that replicate a customer’s scope of use.
The established reference platforms, provided by Dell and Sun Microsystems, comprise Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers for the x86 architecture (Windows and Linux) and Sun's UltraSPARC® and Sun Fire™ x64 servers running the Solaris™ 10 Operating System. This comprehensive environment will help provide customer institutions with the most effective and cost-efficient software and hardware configuration recommendations to help build or expand a unified digital campus.
A unified digital campus is a combination of applications that create an integrated technology environment to help provide exceptional service to campus constituents and strengthen institutional performance. It facilitates system-wide coordination of an institution’s choice of applications including SunGard Higher Education solutions, third-party solutions, and homegrown solutions that are customized to meet the needs of the institution.
“The UDC Test Center will help shift much of the cost and complexity of optimizing multiple component configurations away from individual customers and onto SunGard Higher Education and its select reference platform partners,” said Brian Madocks, chief executive officer, SunGard Higher Education. “We will have new methods to measure and enhance Banner UDC solutions in simulated environments which will help us accelerate product development and optimize system performance for our customers. Transforming this center from a vision to a reality is a cooperative effort and we are pleased to be working together with such respected and proven companies as Dell and Sun Microsystems.”
Exploring and validating configuration options on reference platforms provides institutions with information to help evaluate and optimize their unique vision of a unified digital campus – before a purchase is made.
"Dell's goal is to simplify IT for its customers and through this UDC Test Center, we believe we will be able to make it easier and more affordable for universities to manage their administrative computing," said John Mullen, vice president of higher education at Dell. "Working with SunGard Higher Education, we will be able to offer our customers a pre-tested, proven platform on which to build their administrative infrastructure, while helping them keep their costs down."
“We are pleased with SunGard Higher Education's selection of open source Solaris OS for SPARC and x64 as a reference platform for the UDC Test Center as it reflects Solaris' strong position in higher education and the SunGard Higher Education customer base," said Joe Hartley, vice president, global education, government and healthcare, Sun Microsystems. "Establishing such a center for campus-level testing requires a significant investment and commitment by both parties. We feel confident that the UDC Test Center will help us provide even higher levels of performance, reliability and value to current and future customers.”
The UDC Test Center is scheduled to be operational in November 2007. For more information and details about the UDC Test Center, please visit www.sungardhe.com/udctc.
About SunGard Higher Education
SunGard Higher Education provides software and support, systems implementation and integration, strategic consulting, and technology management services to help colleges and universities build, unify, and manage their digital campuses. Bringing together people, processes, and technology, SunGard Higher Education assists more than 1,600 customers worldwide to strengthen institutional performance through improved constituent services, increased accountability, and better educational experiences. www.sungardhe.com.
About SunGard
With annual revenue exceeding $4 billion, SunGard is a global leader in software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector. SunGard also helps information-dependent enterprises of all types to ensure the continuity of their business. SunGard serves more than 25,000 customers in more than 50 countries, including the world¹s 50 largest financial services companies. Visit SunGard at www.sungard.com.
Trademark Information: SunGard, the SunGard logo and Banner are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. Dell and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc. Sun, Sun Microsystems, Sun Fire and Solaris are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC, International, Inc. in the US and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.