HBMSU first university in MENA to completely migrate to Cloud
08 Jul 2020
DUBAI — Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU) announced the successful and complete migration of its systems and applications from its on-premises data centers to the leading technology of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud.
This development is in line with HBMSU’s pioneering efforts to establish a new educational culture by shifting away from the on-premises, traditional model of education in order to raise highly qualified and globally competitive future generations.
Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim expressed his pride in HBMSU’s regional and global leadership in smart learning, adding that the complete and successful migration to the AWS Cloud is a great milestone and an unprecedented achievement in the Middle East and North Africa region.
He said the latest achievement further consolidates the UAE's competitiveness on the international education scene. He added that the initiative is of great importance as it drives the national efforts aimed at supporting the continuous development of the education sector, in line with the vision and directives of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to improve education as a key to the flexibility needed to better respond to the rapidly evolving developments.
Moreover, he said: “The achievement of HBMSU as the first educational institution in the MENA region to migrate its on-premises legacy systems to the leading technology of AWS confirms its active and pivotal role in supporting the UAE’s vision to develop an integrated educational system that is among the best in the world and to create generations who are cognitively, academically and creatively qualified to guide the progress.”
He further said: “We are confident that this transition toward cloud computing marks the beginning of a new era of academic and cognitive excellence, complementing the University’s role as a pioneering hub for smart learning in the Arab world.”
Mansoor Al Awar, the chancellor of the HBMSU, said: “We are proud of our new regional achievement that marks the latest milestone in our continuing journey to redefine learning and education, led by a unique vision to be ahead of other global universities by 10 years and to pioneer change and development in the field of higher education.
“Our constructive partnership with AWS represents a great step forward in strengthening our preparation for the future and enhancing our readiness for the next 50 years,” he added.
Al Awar noted that “Cloud computing stands out today at the forefront of advanced technologies that represent a top priority in our determined efforts to advance higher education locally, regionally and globally, shifting away from the traditional, on-premises approach that has become obsolete for any society that wants to compete in today’s global arena.
AWS’s leading cloud computing technology and features open up opportunities for us to spread our footprint as a unique model for smart learning, based on innovation, and quality, enriching the stock of knowledge, scientific research, and entrepreneurship, to produce generations that are able to make a better and more sustainable future.”
“We are proud of our cooperation with AWS, the latest in a series of our international cooperation that reflects our absolute commitment to working in accordance with our fundamental principle of ‘Together We Grow,’ while we redefine education according to the pillars of innovation, disruption, and transformation, and provide a unique educational and research product that will change the face of education at the regional and global levels. We renew our commitment to placing our long years of experience in the service of ambitious aspirations in creating an educational system capable of discovering, guiding and employing talents in the path of growth, progress and prosperity,” he concluded.
Zubin Chagpar, Head of the Middle East and Africa, AWS, said “Cloud computing today is transforming the education sector and enabling educational institutions to build secure environments for mission-critical applications, freeing them to focus on student success. We are excited to see how quickly HBMSU has been able to realize their vision using the AWS cloud, as they become the university of the future with a focus on bringing new and exciting learning experiences to students. It is great to see the effort that the university has put into skilling its own teams in order to ensure that they are able to realize the full potential of the AWS cloud. We look forward to continuing to work with HBMSU as it further innovates on the cloud with new teaching and learning solutions.”
For 14 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering more than 175 fully-featured services from data centers across the globe. Millions of customers around the world, including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies, rely on AWS to reduce operational costs and become more innovative, agile and flexible.
This migration enables HMBSU to shift its entire services and applications to AWS Cloud; a step that will have a positive impact on the performance of students as well as the academic community, enabling access to the University’s services anywhere, anytime. Furthermore, this milestone will enhance HMBSU’s responsiveness, speed, and flexibility, in addition to supporting its computing infrastructure, expanding the scope of connecting globally with new geographical areas within a few minutes, and without any additional costs.
The digital transformation initiative provides many competitive advantages to HBMSU, including reduced costs by applying a utility model according to the actual use. This step also enables the University to use computer capacities that can instantly be adjusted automatically according to needs and without having to make advance estimates of capacity. In addition, it increases the speed and efficiency of services and operations by providing resources to the University’s developers within minutes instead of waiting for weeks or months.
The achievement further opens new horizons for innovation, research and exploration, and enables the University to enhance its global footprint easily and without restrictions, thereby placing its leading capabilities and expertise within the reach of learners, anywhere and anytime with just one click of a button.
This achievement will enable HBMSU to obtain the highest international accreditations from the most prestigious educational bodies, capitalizing on the global network of AWS. In addition, a collaboration between HBMSU and AWS enables the University to create multiple cloud-based virtual datacenters using Amazon’s virtual private clouds (VPC), while maintaining the highest levels of security and reliability, together with seamless control of data flow.
Trusted by renowned organizations all over the world, AWS is the best option when it comes to highly-reliable cloud services for various applications, including computing, data centers, data storage, networking, portable devices, machine learning, IoT, artificial intelligence, governance, web applications, game development, security, compliance and other services.
The new collaboration will ensure HMBSU’s access to premium features that can enhance controls of cloud resources and deployment methodologies, as well as multi-level security systems and protection tools against all sorts of malicious attacks including distributed denial-of-service (DDoS).
Among numerous other features, AWS offers an integrated package of full-fledged services designed to meet the requirements of students and employees, such as improving productivity, providing real-time communication anywhere, anytime, and enabling remote desktop access. The service portfolio also includes Secure Cloud Desktops, Secure Application Streaming, Virtual Contact Center, Remote Communication and Collaboration, Secure Content Collaboration, Secure, Scalable, Remote Network Access, Virtual workstations for creative professionals, together with access to a global network of AWS-certified experts. — Agencies