University of Canberra partners with Nutanix to optimise cloud computing capabilities

Matt Carmichael, CIO, University of Canberra

• Decade-long partnership slashes infrastructure needs, improves carbon footprint, and sets foundation for AI research 

• 90 per cent of the University’s core applications run on Nutanix

 CANBERRA, Australia – February 5, 2024 -- Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, today said University of Canberra (UC) slashed its IT infrastructure costs and optimised its cloud computing expenses using the Nutanix Cloud Platform. 

Founded in 1967, UC is dedicated to providing immersive student experiences focused on strong employment outcomes. It has a rich history of pioneering research and innovation with practical impact on community, and is home to leading research centres and institutes including the Centre for Conservation Ecology and Genomics, Health Research Institute, and more. Located in Australia’s capital, UC has more than 15,500 students, academics, researchers, and professional staff.  

While UC’s cloud/network architecture comprises several elements of the Nutanix Cloud Platform, the latest implementation was the NCM Cost Governance solution – one which Matt Carmichael, CIO, University of Canberra, said had an immediate impact.  

“We have a small IT team, and the tool gives us a single pane of glass to monitor our usage across Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, automatically alerting us to any ‘gotchas’ where spend might tick up and we don’t know why,” he said. “That has saved us a couple times. One instance was when our backups in Google Cloud weren’t being aged out appropriately, increasing our bills exponentially. We were able to quickly get it back in line with Nutanix technology.” 

Carmichael said these cost savings were just the tip of the iceberg as previous implementations had drastically reduced the University’s IT expenses and infrastructure needs.  

“Using Nutanix to implement our private cloud was a major reason we were able to replace our disaster recovery (DR) datacentre with a micro datacentre,” he said. “This meant when we needed a new DR facility, it only required three racks of space, instead of the existing 24 – this led to upfront financial savings of around $2 million, and ongoing savings in operational costs and energy usage.” 

“Further, we’ve been able to consolidate the server and storage assets we need by 78 per cent which led to an additional projected saving of more than $1.5 million as we didn’t have to purchase all that new equipment.” 

Carmichael said that as existing infrastructure reached the end of its lifecycle, workloads previously running on three-tier architecture were migrated to Nutanix. Today, more than 90 per cent of the University’s core applications run on Nutanix Cloud Platform, including the key student management, finance, human resources, and database systems. 

“What we saw as we migrated more workloads to Nutanix was massive consolidation in the IT hardware we needed – we saw shrinking in our datacentre footprint requirements almost immediately,” he said. “It was also much easier to manage and support, particularly with seamless one-click upgrades. Previously, our traditional infrastructure meant we had all these different hoops you had to jump through.”  

While the financial and operational savings have enabled UC to invest in enhancing the student learning experience, Carmichael said one of the greatest benefits had stemmed from improving the quality of its teaching in the areas of AI and Deep Learning.  

“We recently added undergraduate specialist majors in Robotics, AI, and Data Science, a Masters of Data Science, and Post Graduate specialisations in AI and Machine Learning. To teach these courses effectively requires a significantly increased capacity for GPU-enabled computing resources,” Carmichael said.  

“With Nutanix End User Computing (EUC), students are able to work on their lab work, assessments, and research from anywhere without requiring excessively expensive terminals – they can use their normal laptops, log-in to the VDI portal, and access all the computing resources they need,” Carmichael said. “Improving the student experience by offering a flexible, remotely accessible teaching environment with enough computing resources for AI and Deep Learning is one of the strategic goals of the Faculty of Science and Technology.” 

Carmichael said postgraduate researchers – such as those conducting research at the University’s Visual and Decision Analytics Lab (VIDEA) and the Australian Geospatial Health Lab (AGeoH-L) – were also able to easily access all the computing power they required as Nutanix’s platform enables UC to scale up or down as needed in UC’s research cluster.  

The University’s first foray into Nutanix technology was in 2013 when it was looking to transform its legacy three-tier infrastructure and reduce the complexity of its IT architecture. Carmichael said he has since worked closely with its technology partner, QIRX, throughout his digital transformation journey. QIRX is also an authorised Nutanix reseller.  

“QIRX has been a very stable partner for us,” he said. “When we originally went to Nutanix, they were brave enough right at the beginning because it was such a new technology, they were early adopters in bringing that to the table. We bought our first cluster from them and have procured through them ever since.” 

Aaron White, General Manager and Vice President, Nutanix APJ, said UC was at the cutting edge of AI and Deep Learning innovation. 

“The next generation of innovators and world-changers are studying right now at University of Canberra,” White said. “We’re only just beginning to understand the full potential of AI, and it’s the hands-on research underway in our nation’s capital that will shape the future of our nation.”  

###

About Nutanix

Nutanix is a global leader in cloud software, offering organizations a single platform for running apps and data across clouds. With Nutanix, companies can reduce complexity and simplify operations, freeing them to focus on their business outcomes. Building on its legacy as the pioneer of hyperconverged infrastructure, Nutanix is trusted by companies worldwide to power hybrid multicloud environments consistently, simply, and cost-effectively. Learn more at www.nutanix.com or follow us on social media @nutanix.

© 2023 Nutanix, Inc. All rights reserved. Nutanix, the Nutanix logo, and all Nutanix product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or unregistered trademarks of Nutanix, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Other brand names or marks mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s). This release may contain links to external websites that are not part of Nutanix.com. Nutanix does not control these sites and disclaims all responsibility for the content or accuracy of any external site. Our decision to link to an external site should not be considered an endorsement of any content on such a site. Certain information contained in this press release may relate to or be based on studies, publications, surveys and other data obtained from third-party sources and our own internal estimates and research. While we believe these third-party studies, publications, surveys and other data are reliable as of the date of this press release, they have not independently verified, and we make no representation as to the adequacy, fairness, accuracy, or completeness of any information obtained from third-party sources.

This release may contain express and implied forward-looking statements, which are not historical facts and are instead based on our current expectations, estimates and beliefs. The accuracy of such statements involves risks and uncertainties and depends upon future events, including those that may be beyond our control, and actual results may differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied by such statements. Any forward-looking statements included herein speak only as of the date hereof and, except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update or otherwise revise any of such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.