The University of Sunderland has partnered with digital and cloud service provider, ANS to benefit from a cloud solution which will help to improve efficiency and effectiveness of operations across the University.

Following a cloud P&D carried out by ANS, the University was able to identify which areas of its IT infrastructure could be migrated to the Microsoft Azure public cloud to increase efficiency, accessibility and improve user-experience for both staff and students.

By migrating to Azure cloud, the University of Sunderland will be able to reduce its reliance on data centres and save on resources which would otherwise be spent on maintaining its IT estate. This will enable the University to become more agile and innovative, allowing them to invest in and develop their Digital First strategy, which will enable them to drive and deliver transformational change.

24/7 support from ANS’ dedicated team will also mean that the University can continue migrating applications to the cloud as part of their drive to become a data centre zero university by 2021.

Commenting on the project, David Conway, Deputy Technical Director at the University of Sunderland said, “The agility and flexibility public cloud brings to our operations is not to be underestimated. The ability to grow and shrink our estate based on real-time requirements allows us to be more reactive to the rapidly changing needs of the university.

ANS’ expertise in the higher education market has helped us to understand the suitability of our environment which has been invaluable. The team at ANS is now working closely with us to safely migrate the university to a platform which meets our business needs and delivers the effectiveness and efficiency we require as internal service providers.”

David Hogarth, Technical Director at the University said, “Transforming the IT enterprise in today’s uncertain world is incredibly challenging. Having ANS partnering the University on the journey, to deliver and sustain a truly future-fit IT enterprise gives me great confidence that we will deliver strongly on our objectives and ambitions.”

Andy Barrow, CTO at ANS added, “This is just the start of a very exciting journey for the University of Sunderland. Leveraging the cloud will enable them to expand on their Digital First strategy and invest more heavily in creating unrivalled student experiences and outcomes. We look forward to continuing to work with the University and helping them to benefit from all the advantages cloud can bring.”