Case Study: University of New Hampshire achieves high-availability, scalable online course management with Citrix NetScaler

University of New Hampshire Moves Course Management Online with Citrix NetScaler

The University of New Hampshire, a 14,000‑student land‑grant university, saw rapid adoption of the Blackboard Learning System—eventually used for about 80% of courses—and needed a more robust way to ensure 24/7 availability, integrated SSL encryption, and advanced scripting for testing and session persistence. UNH’s existing Linux‑based load balancer couldn’t meet scalability, security, or scripting requirements, so IT evaluated alternatives to support growing usage and critical academic workflows.

UNH selected Citrix NetScaler Platinum and deployed a redundant pair of appliances to load‑balance about 20 Blackboard web servers plus additional applications (Banner, Kronos). NetScaler’s SSH‑accessible scripting, session persistence and integrated SSL delivered smooth rollout, sustained 15–20% semester growth without disruption, and automatically routed traffic away from failed servers. The result: reliable high availability, easier SSL management, scalable capacity for new modules, and plans to add the NetScaler Application Firewall and Layer‑7 content switching.

University of New Hampshire

Eileen Cooley

Senior IT Manager