Rackspace Technology Makes Remote Learning a Reality for Humber College
To support its students and staff in the transition to remote education, Humber enlisted Onica, a Rackspace Technology company, to fast-track simplified deployment of academic applications that allow students to access them anywhere and from any device.
SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rackspace TechnologyTM (NASDAQ: RXT) today announced its support for Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning in its strategic shift to digital infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic as the institution looks to enable the best possible future for its students.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on secondary education and stay-at-home orders have forced institutions to reconsider their learning environments both now and in the future. To support its students and staff in the transition to remote education, Humber enlisted Onica, a Rackspace Technology company, to fast-track simplified deployment of academic applications that allow students to access them anywhere and from any device.
"We are really happy to have brought Onica on as our partner,” said Ryan Burton, Director, Digital Solutions, Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning. “The team was not only able to produce a solution that fit Humber’s accessibility, scalability, and performance requirements, but it was also able to accomplish the task at an unprecedented speed using AppStream. Onica’s efforts and support have helped us provide academic stability to our students during these challenging times, with minimal disruption."
As a result of the partnership, over 30,000 full-time Humber students are able to access coursework, lessons, and resources remotely to continue their studies. The effort has also allowed Humber to enable a secure “Bring Your Own Device” model of accessibility for students. With this solution, Humber is no longer limited to manually provisioning and maintaining a set number of desktop systems, which may remove the complex and time-intensive requirement to secure desktops, and instead recover campus funds for other purposes in the future.
“Students of Humber College will benefit enormously from cloud-enabled education and the opportunity remote learning offers,” said Tolga Tarhan, CTO, Rackspace Technology. “The future of our world is dependent upon the education of the next generation, but sufficient education is impossible without access. We’re proud to work with academic institutions that are helping to usher in the future of learning through flexible remote environments.”
Onica designed, tested, and implemented a production-grade Amazon AppStream 2.0 environment for Humber, integrated with its on-premises data center to simplify the deployment of academic applications. The solution uses an Amazon FSx for Windows File Server for Windows file sharing and Amazon Simple Storage Service for other storage. AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) provides user and role authentication, authorization, and management. Humber College’s on-premises Virtual Private Network terminates in the AWS Transit Gateway. An AWS Lambda function switches the AppStream 2.0 fleets between Day and Night modes, thereby reducing costs during low-use hours.
Rackspace and Humber minimized downtime during the project by fast-tracking internal processes to eliminate weeks of lag, spinning up the initial environment in just 10 business days. The project is set to complete in Summer 2020, with at least 80% of Humber’s applications available remotely through Amazon AppStream 2.0.
About Rackspace Technology
Rackspace Technology is a leading end-to-end multicloud technology services company. We can design, build and operate our customers’ cloud environments across all major technology platforms, irrespective of technology stack or deployment model. We partner with our customers at every stage of their cloud journey, enabling them to modernize applications, build new products and adopt innovative technologies.
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Natalie Silva
Rackspace Corporate Communications
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