IBM-Bryant University

Vendor: IBM (NYSE: IBM)
Channel Partner: American Power Conversion (APC) www.apc.com
Customer: Bryant University www.bryant.edu    
Vertical Markets: Education

Technology Used: BladeCenter, IBM Director, Tivoli Monitoring for Energy Management, IBM Service Management Framework

Solution: Bryant University is an educational institution in Rhode Island with over 3,000 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students. Known for its overall excellence and innovation, Bryant University attracts students from all around the world. The school is distinguished from others by its strong emphasis on technology, which gives graduates an advantage over other job seekers.

The challenge faced by Bryant University was twofold – the school had to find a way to cut costs and deliver environmentally-friendly services without sacrificing the quality of their IT services and infrastructure. They began searching for such a solution because of tough economic times and pressure from parents and students to support green initiatives.

To address their complex challenges, Bryant worked with IBM Alliance Partner APC and IBM Global Technology Services to optimize the efficiency of its data center through standardization, virtualization, and consolidation. During the first phase of the project, Bryant implemented IBM BladeCenter servers and the IBM Scalable Modular Data Center solution with the APC InfraStruXure architecture. This solution was both energy efficient and space saving. Bryant also deployed IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Energy Management software to gain greater insight into their energy consumption and effectively address inefficiencies.

The benefits for Bryant have been numerous and tangible. By cutting the number of physical servers from 75 to 40, the school realized a 50-percent reduction in the amount of IT floor space required. Bryant decreased its energy consumption by 5-percent, helping to reduce its carbon footprint. Even more remarkably, the school cut operational expenses by 30-percent and capital expenditures by 21-percent, thanks in part to the implementation of the IBM Scalable Modular Data Center solution.