Enterprise Architecture

Challenge:

Curtin University of Technology is Western Australia's largest university with over 31,000 students, nearly 11,000 of those offshore and onshore international students and nearly 1000 research students. Curtin takes its name from the former Prime Minister of Australia from 1941-1945, John Curtin.
In 2005, Curtin’s senior IT Management asked Aeco Pacific to provide a review of the Universities centralised IT architecture, how it met business needs and its operational cost structures and efficiencies.

Curtin operates a large and diverse computing environment with 100’s of servers ranging from single processor Windows servers through to multi-million dollar Sun Microsystems mainframes.

Business Purpose:

To conduct a review Curtin’s technical computer system architecture and tactical operations of the  technology architecture aimed at:
Formalising an understanding of the existing technology architecture in terms of:

• A review of the implementation of the Architecture Blueprint
• Alignment with the tactical operational requirements of the major corporate business applications.
• The current deployment of the technology architectures and identify alternatives, options and cost savings based on emerging world class practice and current technology trends
• The contracted support services to align with the service level requirements and the targeted architecture.
• Develop a technology architecture and associated set of support services. This will be targeted at offering improved system availability, capacity and contingency options, and importantly, cost savings.

Aeco Achievements:

Working from a review of business strategy and plans, Aeco Pacific developed an Enterprise Technology Architecture based on business needs, organisational structure,  capabilities and industry trends. .
Encompassing significant organisational and technologies efficiencies, the proposed architecture demonstrated significant operational savings and process efficiency. The architecture was accepted by Curtin and integrated into the ITIL architecture as the future delivery architecture for the University.
The new technology architecture formed a component of the Curtin Enterprise Architecture and was applied in conjunction with related Enterprise Architecture initiatives.