Case Study: Athabasca University achieves consolidated, high-availability storage and an improved student experience with Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Athabasca University - Customer Case Study

Athabasca University, the Canadian distance-learning pioneer serving 40,000 students, faced a fragmented, end-of-life IT environment with multiple operating systems, virtualization technologies and siloed storage from NetApp, Hitachi and white‑label arrays. These legacy systems caused availability problems, maintenance outages during prime student hours and limited the university’s ability to deliver richer, modern online learning—so Athabasca engaged Hewlett Packard Enterprise to evaluate converged storage solutions.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise deployed an HPE 3PAR StoreServ converged storage solution (including the File Persona Software Suite and 7200C hardware), consolidating block and file storage under a single management console and simplifying migration and backups. The implementation delivered much faster database I/O and VM backups (seconds vs. minutes), enabled broader admin ownership of storage, deferred hardware purchases through deduplication, and produced measurable benefits—about $70,000 in annual maintenance savings and a 70% smaller footprint with lower power consumption—while positioning Athabasca for improved disaster recovery and richer distance learning.

Athabasca University

John Latremouille

Director of IT Operations