September 26, 2006 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The University of Derby (derby.ac.uk) has signed a data center hosting agreement with Griffin Internet (griffin.com) to support the expansion of its online information services to students and academics. Derby's Learning Centre provides library and IT facilities to students and academics, housing 300 PC workstations and meeting facilities for up to 900 students and academics.
Derby set out to expand access to online study material, journals and discussion forums, which called for increased volumes of data and more servers. The university chose Griffin Internet to provide a hosting facility that would help it to achieve this goal.
The facility's infrastructure includes a 1GB Ethernet connection coupled with a 100MB backup from the Learning Centre directly to its hosting center, where 20 servers store and protect the university's data. Griffin Internet's service level agreement ensures around-the-clock surveillance and a controlled environment for server operation.
"The demand for this service has exceeded our expectations," says Tony Brookes, head of infrastructure services at the University of Derby. "The issue however was one of time and space. Our own hosting facilities were fast being outstripped, as was our ability to effectively manage and protect the data until our new Markeaton campus is available."
