The University of Southern Queensland has deployed the Nutanix Cloud Platform to modernise its virtualisation environment and support future Digital Transformation initiatives.
The University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) has modernised its core IT infrastructure by deploying the Nutanix Cloud Platform as part of a wider programme to upgrade its virtualisation environment.
With campuses in Toowoomba, Springfield and Ipswich, and more than 25,000 students studying both on campus and online, UniSQ said the project was designed to improve the reliability, scalability and management of the systems supporting learning, teaching and student services.
The university began reviewing its virtualisation environment in late 2024 to ensure it could meet future demand. Rather than replacing its existing infrastructure on a like-for-like basis, UniSQ selected the Nutanix Cloud Platform, including the AHV hypervisor, to provide a more integrated platform for future development.
“Changing something as fundamental as our virtualisation platform is a major decision and we approached it with a clear focus on long-term capability,” said Stephen Payne, Associate Director, Hosting Infrastructure, University of Southern Queensland.
“We wanted to strengthen the foundations of our environment – improving reliability today while giving us the flexibility to evolve as our needs change. Nutanix provided a platform that aligned with that direction.”
Working with Nutanix Professional Services, the university migrated approximately 500 virtual machines in its test and development environment, together with around 300 production virtual machines and appliances. These included Moodle, the university’s learning management system, the uConnect student and staff portal, the PeopleSoft enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform and Oracle databases.
“We’ve achieved our migration on deadline,” said Payne. “We had a clear timeframe to work to, and the combination of platform capability and implementation support allowed us to move quickly while maintaining confidence in the outcome. Equally important was ensuring we had the right architecture and documentation in place to support future initiatives, including containerisation, cloud integration and new digital services.”
According to UniSQ, the deployment has reduced its infrastructure footprint by 52%, based on the university’s internal assessment, while improving operational efficiency.
“Previously, managing performance and capacity required significant manual effort across multiple systems,” said Payne.
“Now we have a more streamlined environment where resources can be managed proactively, helping us maintain consistent performance for both students and staff.”
The university added that the new platform enables maintenance and system upgrades to be carried out with reduced disruption to teaching and assessment activities throughout the academic year.
