26 July 2007

NUS launches IT Disaster Recovery Centre

FIRST-EVER FOR INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING: NUS President Prof Shih Choon Fong (left) and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's CEO, Mr Chan Yeng Kit opening the IT Disaster Recovery Centre at NUS High.

A $4.7 million NUS data centre now serves the University, protecting the vast information flow among the entire NUS population of faculty, staff and students. The IT Disaster Recovery Centre is a first for Singapore's higher education sector. Built by Siemens IT Solutions and Services, it is located at NUS High School.

In event of crisis such as flu pandemic or SARS where segregation and quarantine are required, students can carry on their lessons remotely and access essential information from home via the Internet. Virtual classrooms can also be conducted. The facility can also provide a high-level of alternative support to primary data centre sites with high availability of service capability and data hosting for key university functions such as University Admission, Course Registration, Online Teaching and Learning.

NUS President Prof Shih Choon Fong said that the establishment of the Centre is a milestone for NUS. "It is a significant step in the long-term development of IT in NUS and NUS High," he said. The campus relies heavily on IT -- for example, NUS has some 4,000 courses with presence on the Web and some 6,000 discussion forums. A total of 120 Webcast modules and 2,360 recording hours are created per semester. The research community at the campus is also connected to the global research community through IT. An interruption of such enormous computer power would have a crippling impact. But if this happens at the Kent Ridge Campus, the Centre at NUS High will enable network connection to resume seamlessly.

LAUNCHING THE IT DISASTER RECOVERY CENTRE: From left: Mr Tommy Hor, Director, Computer Centre, NUS; Mr Joseph Mullinix, Deputy President (Administration); Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Chief Executive Officer, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore; NUS President Prof Shih Choon Fong; Mr Pek Yew Chai, Managing Director, Siemens Business Services, Singapore; and Mr Michael Ng, Director, Office of Estate and Development, NUS.

Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Chief Executive Officer, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore in his keynote address at the opening of the Centre, also gave the example of the day "e-mails fell silent" when an earthquake struck in Taiwan causing disruption to the Internet in the region. NUS' establishment of an IT disaster recovery centre is an international message in preparing for crisis, he said.