SiT, Studentsamskipnaden i Trondheim, exists for the many students in the town. This organisation aims to help ensure that students enjoy living in the town, and that more people view Trondheim as an attractive place to study.
SiT owns and runs student accommodation, nurseries, cafeterias, sports facilities, a bookshop, a clinic, a travel agency and other service functions for students at NTNU, Sør-Trøndelag University College, Queen Maud University College and Folkeuniversitet Trondheim.
The organisation is divided up into five units, and the IT department supplies services for around 400 users. Staff work in a large number of specialist fields which have strict requirements in terms of personal protection and security. As a result, the IT department has to run more than 40 different specialist systems.
“We have defined our own service level agreements with the various units which define the quality and content of the services we have to supply. Most of the systems are run in a separate building, and users mostly run programs locally on their own machines. Some of them have services supplied using Citrix,” says Per-Arne Norevik, SiT’s Head of IT, adding that VMware is used to a great extent for virtualisation of the server park. SiT had an outdated infrastructure which needed a general upgrade of both servers and storage.
They also wanted to implement redundant systems without breaking the bank. “We launched a major project in order to enhance the quality of operations. The old system had to be replaced in any case. We needed better uptime, simpler administration, enhanced performance and – not least – greater security with regard to the systems,” he says, adding that structure, rational operation and better control were crucial criteria.
Moreover, SiT faced various technical challenges which affected uptime. This further accelerated the procurement process. The earlier SAN solution had been in place for seven years, and it was ready to be replaced. “The 18 terabytes we had available in the system were more or less completely used up,” says Norevik.
Find out more. Download the PDF