Khipu Chooses IBM Cloud to Seamlessly Scale to meet Growing Demand for its Virtual Education Service

New application supports 7,000 teachers while enabling e-learning from remote rural areas

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Aug 07, 2014, 09:10 ET

LIMA, Peru, Aug. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Khipu Corporation has deployed an e-learning platform using Moodle on SoftLayer's Cloud infrastructure to enable facilitators and teachers to access virtual lessons, download educational material, conduct tests of its training program and focus on high performance teaching.

Khipu Corporation deployed the e-learning platform to serve facilitators and teachers and other participants of the Distance Learning Program promoted by the Regional Government of Cusco. The Program was launched in October 2013 to enable educators to improve education and create effective online learning sites for participants by connecting outside the classroom, regardless of location.

As more teachers and facilitators began using the platform, Khipu realized that its infrastructure should take the next step to meet the growing demand. The educational corporation chose SoftLayer, an IBM company, to provide a robust, scalable and cost-effective infrastructure that is not only capable of scaling as the program grows but that can also enable any teacher or student to access its lesson plans from any location that has an internet connection.

SoftLayer is the only infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider with a single private network connecting all datacenters and network points of presence (PoP), Further, only SoftLayer offers bare metal servers with on-demand ordering and automated deployment. As the only IaaS provider offering unlimited private network traffic between all of its facilities, SoftLayer is able to significantly reduce Khipu's bandwidth costs as it delivers its lesson plans.

Since deploying its application on the SoftLayer's cloud, more than 7,000 users have accessed Khipu's services, and the company expects that number will continue to grow by the end of 2014.

"We needed a high-performance infrastructure platform that could still be affordable for our e-learning application," said Roberto Portugal, President of Khipu Corporation. "This project reflects our commitment to education, allowing teachers and students to access, collaborate and share in real-time from any remote location."

With SoftLayer, Khipu has successfully offered its implementation of e-learning to facilitate interactive learning activities and content delivery to participants, by facilitators, throughout the Cusco Region. Seizing an on-demand infrastructure and a usage-based billing, the company is able to meet the demands of short-term projects without a large upfront investments in IT infrastructure. Avoiding capital investments in infrastructure through this initiative, Khipu estimates that it will save thousands of dollars.

"At IBM, we strive every day to meet the needs of our customers in order to develop innovative technological solutions and to accompany them in their growth," said Rodolfo Armellini, Service Manager IBM Peru. "SoftLayer can provide security, privacy and the reliability of private clouds, with the economy and speed of a public cloud."

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Media Contact:
Nicholas Smith
IBM Communications
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SOURCE IBM