Gonzaga University Gives Oracle Cloud an "A" for Cost and Efficiency

Leading private university modernizes infrastructure with Oracle to securely support critical applications

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Nov 08, 2018, 09:00 ET

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Nov. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Gonzaga University is using Oracle Cloud to streamline its operations and better serve its student and staff community. With Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Oracle Database Cloud, the University has not only cut costs and reduced complexity but also upgraded to new versions of Ellucian and its ERP system in just seven months – all while improving security and reliability.

Ranked the fourth best regional university in the West for the fourth straight year by U.S. News & World Report, Gonzaga University is an exemplary learning community that educates students for lives of leadership and service for the common good. In keeping with its Catholic, Jesuit, and humanistic heritage and identity, Gonzaga models and expects excellence in academic and professional pursuits and intentionally develops the whole person -- intellectually, spiritually, culturally, physically, and emotionally. When an aging IT infrastructure was struggling to support the University's strategic goals, it knew it needed to rethink its approach.

"Achieving sustainable operations is one of the key tenets in Gonzaga's strategic plan," said Darren Owsley, Chief Technology Officer at Gonzaga. "Our existing IT infrastructure on premise would have required significant upgrades to support new technology moving forward as well as the applications that are critical to our operations today. After a competitive bid process, Oracle Cloud was the clear choice for what Gonzaga needed, both in price and performance."

By moving its core functions to the cloud, Gonzaga was able to eliminate the need for time-consuming configurations and provision new servers in minutes versus weeks. This has dramatically improved efficiency, while also allowing for the acceleration of new projects. And with the ability to easily scale and pay for only the capacity it's using, Gonzaga now has the cost-effective foundation it needs to grow well into the future. The University is also utilizing Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for disaster recovery.

"At a recent event, other universities were lamenting about cloud projects that took years," added Borre Ulrichsen, Chief Information Officer at Gonzaga. "With Oracle, our implementation through to production took mere months. Moreover, I know our database and server infrastructure is being continually upgraded and patched by Oracle, taking the burden off of our limited IT resources. This has allowed us to focus more time on strategic initiatives that better serve our students and staff and continue to help make Gonzaga one of the top universities in the West."

"Gonzaga was looking for a partner that would provide support every step of the way during its transition to the cloud," said Kash Iftikhar, vice president of product and strategy, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. "Oracle Cloud Infrastructure delivers the reliability needed – at the lowest cost, and highest performance. We are honored to be working with such a highly-esteemed institution, and helping them focus on their mission, instead of infrastructure."

Gonzaga was also recognized at OpenWorld 2018 as a winner of the Oracle Excellence Award for Oracle Cloud Platform Innovation, awarded to customers and partners who are using Oracle Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to accelerate innovation and drive business transformation by increasing agility, lowering costs and reducing IT complexity.

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