UPO adopts eLearning and remote working with UDS Education

• Name: Pablo de Olavide University of Seville

• Sector: Education

• Number of students: 14,011

• Number of teachers: 1,074

• Professors, PhDs and research staff: 1.074

• Administration and services staff: 349

• Location: Sevilla

The Pablo de Olavide University of Seville is a renowned institution offering quality public education to more than 10,000 students per year for 24 years and is among the top universities in the country in terms of research.

Its commitment to modernization and digital transformation led the IT department to look for a next-generation solution to improve its efficiency and optimize the service provided to both administration and services staff, as well as teachers and researchers from the center. After studying their needs, they decided to incorporate a desktop and application virtualization solution that integrates with elements of their own IT infrastructure.

One of the main requirements of the University was to implement an agile software and application update system that would leave behind the local installation model, which required individual updates to be carried out in each of the user workstations. UDS Enterprise has allowed them to automate these tasks, as well as the installation of security patches, new programs… IT professionals no longer have to move to the location of IT devices or do their work manually. Thanks to this VDI
connection broker, all these processes are automated and centralized. They are performed through a single console accessible via a web browser.

The Pablo de Olavide University affirms that the most notable change is precisely in the application update methodology. Instead of updating hundreds of machines, they just work on a test server. After confirming that the new version of an application is successful, the process is repeated on the corresponding production server. This new way of working also ensures that all workstations are standardized, eliminating possible issues from the incompatibility of the different software versions.

INTEGRATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM

The choice of UDS Enterprise went through a market research and testing process. “After the exchange of information with other universities, UDS Enterprise turned out to be the solution that best adapted to the particularities of our environment. Afterward, an initial pilot was proposed that was crucial when deciding on this solution,” adds Jesús Martín Fernández.

The versatility and the possibility of integrating UDS Enterprise within the organization’s web applications, without having to renounce the prior installation of the CAS central authentication system, was a determining factor, which distinguishes UDS Enterprise from other solutions on the market. “It could be said that a very particular need arose in terms of integration with the University’s Single-Sign-On system, solved through an additional development of the partner Fortics,” explains Jesús Martín. “Some tests were carried out in which it was possible to verify that UDS Enterprise perfectly integrated into the CAS solution of the University itself. This proof of concept also served to know how the solution worked. The University verified that it perfectly suited their needs,” continues Virginio García López, Director of Fortics, the Gold Partner that has integrated the UDS Enterprise solution in the organization.

Currently, the University is mainly incorporating applications used by the Administration and Services Personnel. These users can enjoy the virtues of UDS Enterprise, such as 24×7 access, from any place and device, the possibility of working remotely, flexibility, or optimal performance of the applications regardless of the access device.

Although they have not quantified the benefits obtained after implementing the solution, there is no doubt that the savings in time for the technicians has been remarkable and that the efficiency of the entire IT department has improved considerably.

In conclusion, Pablo de Olavide University’s adoption of UDS Enterprise has been a success, managing to adjust to the institution’s needs and resulting in benefits for the organization, its workers, and its teaching and research staff.

VAPP INFRASTRUCTURE

• Broker: UDS Enterprise

• Hypervisor: VMware vSphere

• Connection protocols: RDP (HTML5 and RDS)

• Authenticator: Active Directory. Integration with the University’s CAS authentication system

• vApp OS: Windows

• Access OS: Any