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University of Qld boosts research capabilities with Dell datacentre

University of Queensland has extended its partnership with Dell as part of datacentre service agreement, which was signed at the end of the last year.
Written by Aimee Chanthadavong, Contributor

The University of Queensland's research capabilities have been boosted as part of an extended deal agreement with Dell to provide datacentre services to support its growing requirements.

The deal is part of the university's ongoing relationship with the tech giant that has existed for more than a decade. Since the university's partnership with Dell, it has been able to reduce its carbon footprint, reduce costs, and — since this particular service agreement was signed in December 2013 — quicker response times in deploying IT research infrastructure.

UQ information technology services director Rob Moffat said UQ had increased its research income in excess of AU$100 million in the last five years, and needed a long-term technology partner to support such growth.

"Dell met our current business requirements as well as the ability to grow with us as our needs change," he said.

The datacentre will host QRIScloud, which is the primary Queensland node of the Research Data Storage Infrastructure project, and the national research cloud provided by the National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources project.

Dell cloud services director Kyle Bunting said the partnership will provide UQ with the support it needs.

"Dell's datacentre and converged infrastructure is able to provide UQ with the performance, cost savings, green initiatives, and highly optimised environment that UQ needs for its cloud today and well into the future," she said.

QRIScloud uses Dell infrastructure to power cloud services that are operated by UQ on behalf of the Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation.

Rob Cook QCIF CEO said the benefits of the centre would be felt across Queensland.

"QRIScloud services are revolutionising research across Queensland by making powerful large-scale cloud computing and data storage available to Queensland researchers. This new datacentre provides an excellent professional production facility ideal for future growth," he said.

"The Dell datacentre provides UQ and QCIF with the power and capacity to deliver this service to researchers across Queensland."

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