Tag: university

Asite scores Cambridge University challenge

Posted on July 14, 2017 by - News

GUTTENPLAN2_1605556cThe University of Cambridge has chosen Asite to make the Adoddle platform their Project Information Management tool of choice for their BIM Level 2 project portfolio.

The Estate Management Division at the University of Cambridge is a multi-disciplinary organisation responsible for the development, management and maintenance of the University estate.

Adoddle is a cloud-based collaboration platform . Together, this relationship will establish Adoddle as the pivotal Common Data Environment for the University of Cambridge and allow project teams to realise a global connection with the most up-to-date information in real-time, directly from the Adoddle Cloud Model Server.

Chris Hinton, Technology and Innovation Lead, Estate Management, University of Cambridge said: “Our challenge within a diverse estate is to structure data and define assets to clear and industry recognised standards. The procurement of Adoddle as our Common Data Environment is the foundation for this and our vision of a digitally enabled estate.”

The non-residential estate is valued at £2.7 billion (Insurance Replacement Cost) and its broad and complex nature presents many demanding challenges. Some buildings are 800 years old, Grade I Listed and protected by English Heritage, whilst others are new with highly sustainable building fabrics and buildings management systems.

The capital development pipeline is £4.7 billion. The current building programme has committed funding of £640 million and provides a rich mix of activities that utilise best practice ‘risk-averse’ methods of planning, design, development and construction.

University asks Microsoft not to erase its cloud data

Posted on May 23, 2017 by - News

hqdefault (1)A bankrupt US trade school, the ITT Technical Institutes, is asking a court to stop Microsoft from erasing its cloud data.

The move is being seen as a true 21st century problem and one which could effect channel partners who sell cloudy products.

In a filing to the US District Bankruptcy Court of Southern Indiana, the for-profit university seek an order to bar Vole from wiping the contents of ITT’s Office 365 and webmail accounts for students, faculty, and administrators.

ITT has been under bankruptcy proceedings since September of last year, when it shut down operations and filed for bankruptcy protections.

There had been years of government probes over its ability to stay afloat, and education authorities worried aid money would be lost when ITT went under for good.

A group of trustees has overseen wrapping up ITT’s affairs and settling its outstanding debts. Among those are the bills the school owes on its Office 365 subscription with Microsoft. ITT owes $177,466.46 on an agreement that runs until May 31.

The university wants Microsoft to preserve its data, but was told such a service would cost around $2.5 million.

“The Trustee seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction prohibiting the Defendants from taking any actions that could result in the destruction, deletion, overwriting, or erasing of any of the Electronic Data or taking any other action or inaction that could affect the preservation of the Electronic Data, until such time the Trustee can determine the most cost effective method of accomplishing turnover of the Electronic Data,” the filing reads.

“Any threat of destruction, deletion, overwriting, or erasing of any of the Electronic Data or any other action or inaction that could affect the preservation of the Electronic Data jeopardizes the Trustee’s efforts to marshal, assess, and preserve estate assets, and to otherwise fulfil her duties under section 704 of the Bankruptcy Code.”

Varonis scores University of Liverpool file sharing contract

Posted on February 10, 2015 by - News

liverpoolVaronis has confirmed that it has scored a contract working with the University of Liverpool to overcome the challenge of students moving sensitive data to personal cloud-based storage.

Using Varonis DatAnywhere,  the university gives its 32,000 students and 4,700 staff the “flexibility” to sync its file share data across all of their devices with the added ability to securely share files with external collaborators.

It has proved popular with people –  within eight days of rolling out the software, the university had 1,366 new DatAnywhere users.

Andy Williams, Systems Manager, University of Liverpool said that there were major headaches moving data online to file sharing services.

“In addition to the data being vulnerable offsite, concerns of document version control needed to be addressed, plus the complication that when people leave the university, it is virtually impossible to retain or even revoke access to data stored in uncontrolled repositories.”

It also means that with DatAnywhere in place, the university can now offer a viable alternative to Dropbox and has recently introduced a policy stating ‘confidential documents are not to be stored on other platforms.’

The software uses the university’s existing Active Directory permissions, and no one now has access to shared data, unless they already had it or are provisioned access.

“IT still retains control over who can and can’t access files, particularly those deemed confidential. We can also revoke access centrally, and it will replicate across everything at once, saving time and reducing complexity,” he said

 

College kids like tablets, but still buy PCs

Posted on August 5, 2013 by - News

dorm-room-pcTablet sales are going through the roof, but some consumers still prefer the flexibility of a proper PC. According to a Deloitte survey, laptops are still huge on college campuses, which makes sense as it’s easier to copy papers and download illegal torrents on PCs.

The survey found that 82 percent of college students own PCs and 80 percent have smartphones. However, although tablets are popular among every age group, just 18 percent of college students in the US have one. Deloitte concluded that the combination of smartphones and laptops simply makes tablets redundant in a campus setting, reports Marketwatch.

There are a couple of factors contributing to the popularity of traditional PCs among students. First of all they are still unbeatable when it comes to productivity. While tablets may be more practical for reading and researching, nobody is going to write a paper on a tablet. In addition, PCs are incredibly cheap right now, so a low-end PC often costs less than an iPad mini. We also think gaming and storage have something to do with it. When they’re not writing papers, students can use their boxes to play or enjoy some movies or TV shows.

In addition, many PC vendors are offering tempting deals designed specifically for cash strapped students. Dell University, HP Academy and Apple’s Educational Pricing programmes offer big discounts in the US, although the same doesn’t apply to most European markets.

The only trouble is that students don’t like to spend much, so they usually go for the cheapest possible box. They aren’t very likely to choose fancy all-in-ones or small form factor PCs, but there are also quite a few gamers in the mix and they have no choice but to go after high-end PCs or pricey upgrade components.