Case Study

If You Build It They Will Come

Utah Valley University and Vucci team up to build a state-of-the-art student computer lab to help student athletes compete both on and off the field.

OVERVIEW

On July 1, 2008 Utah Valley State College made the leap to University status and became Utah Valley University (UVU). The switch to a full-fledged university increased the size and number of both faculty and students as well as increasing the visibility of the young Division I athletic program competing in just its sixth year of NCAA competition.

The University currently boasts a student body of between 27,000 and 28,000 full time students, 1,500 full time employees and over 3,100 part time employees.  The athletic department supports 15 NCAA Division I sports and roughly 100 full time and part time employees in addition to almost 300 student athletes.

CHALLENGE

The life of a student athlete may seem glamorous and easy when you see them compete but the harsh reality is that the life of a student athlete is no picnic.  The NCAA has implemented strict regulations regarding the activities a student athlete can and cannot participate in and even requires them to maintain a certain grade point average and carry a specific number of hours each semester.

Aside from attending classes, completing homework and studying for tests, a student athlete travels to and from competitions, practices on a daily basis and is required to spend a certain amount of time in study labs.  Failure to comply with one or all of these requirements may result in a suspension, loss of eligibility or loss of a scholarship.  And that's just for the students.

The other challenge faced by many universities is providing adequate facilities for students to fulfill their academic requirements.  Typically the sporting venue itself is easy to find funding for and acquire the means with which to build a stadium or arena.  However, behind the scenes the study labs and the equipment needed to run an efficient facility are hard to come by, specifically the latest and greatest software and hardware technology needed to maintain a facility of this type. Utah Valley University faced this problem in a big way.  To many it seemed as if their computers had been around since before the switch to university status, which – when translated into technology speak – is the equivalent of having its student athletes work with fossils.

"To put it in a way that's politically correct," said Nate Mathis, assistant athletic director at UVU, "with what we had here previously, we were severely challenged to stay up and current on technology."

SOLUTION

Mike Morrey from the University's development office went to work to find out how he could help the athletic department progress. He was told about how much the student athlete computer lab needed to be updated and he was determined to help.  Mike loves sports and even though he's not an official member of the athletic department he's always been an advocate of athletics.

Morrey took a special interest in the athletic department that would bring the student athletes' computer lab back up to speed.  He spent time with Mathis to understand the student athletes' needs and then went out to find a technology company that could create a lab that would provide the University's athletes with the proper tools needed to compete academically.

Morrey was acquainted with Dave Affleck, president and CEO of Vucci Technology Solutions. Vucci is an IT solutions provider that specializes in providing innovative technology services educational facilities like UVU as well as businesses, healthcare and government facilities. Vucci's solutions allow businesses to consolidate, virtualize, and assess IT needs in a more cost effective way, turning IT into a profit center for stronger return on investment (ROI).

Vucci donated $100,000 worth of equipment and services to refit the athletic department computer lab with virtual desktops and managed services.  This equated to the 30 computer terminals together with the backend virtualization infrastructure that was needed in order to adequately meet the student athletes' needs.

"Vucci is committed to being a part of the community and understand the important role technology plays in education," said Affleck.  "We're pleased to support the University as well as the student athletes, coaches administrative and IT staff and hope that through our contribution the school can continue to provide its students with the best education available."

The new computer lab showcases the implementation of Vucci's virtual desktops and provides an excellent example of the cost savings and green initiatives Vucci's virtualization services provide.

Vucci services include:

• Virtualization
• Architecture Design & Implementation
• Data Center Transformation
• Capacity Planning & Server Consolidation
• Business Continuity & Availability

RESULTS

Even prior to completing the installation of its virtual computer lab, UVU is exploring the possibility of expanding the program to the entire university. 

"The installation has been very smooth and our IT guys are very excited about the new lab," continued Mathis.  "Vucci has been awesome to work with and our experience has been nothing but positive.  We're now 'up to speed' and based off of what we've seen and experienced so far, I know that the IT staff here at UVU would like to expand this technology to the whole campus, which would be a win-win for both sides."

"Our student athletes  typically do very well academically.  In fact, our student athletes' average cumulative GPA is 3.25 which ranks in the top 25 in the country," said Mathis.  "Having this new technology will only make the student athletes' lives easier and aide them in making the most of their athletic and educational experience at UVU." 

From an IT perspective, this new lab has made our lives a whole lot easier and freed our staff up to focus on other departments and bringing them up to date," said Ray Walker, chief information officer at UVU.  "It used to be that when a problem came up in one department we had to send a technician over to that department to assess the problem and them they'd have to come back to our building to get the parts or tools required to fix it.  Then the technician would have to haul the parts or tools back to the department and do the maintenance.  It was a very time consuming process that nobody looked forward to, especially in the winter months. The Vucci Computer Lab has definitely made other departments jealous and shown how much easier and effective our team can be with good technology."

About Vucci

Vucci Technology Solutions is a leading provider of business technology services focused on providing world class IT infrastructure and support at a price that delivers positive return on investment and business agility. Vucci specializes in virtualization, client solutions for consolidating IT infrastructure, reducing energy consumption, automating IT operations, and protecting the data center from outside threats. Our world-class partners provide best-of-breed products in storage, servers, networking, and client technology. With decades of IT experience and numerous certifications (including HP Storage Elite, HP Blade Elite, HP BCS Elite and HP Datacenter Elite), we are dedicated to your success.