Rajasthani Sammelan: The Future of IT-enabled Education in India

Summary:

 

Being one of the first educational institutes of India to run off a data centre,  Rajasthani Sammelan gives us a peak into the schools of the future.

Highlights:

In order to make the IT setup more efficient and allow centralized control, Goraksha wanted to consolidate it in one data centre connected with a single central network, with the separate institutes linked to a common data centre while retaining separate virtual local area networks (VLANs)The biggest challenge was laying the networking cable itself across the huge campus, and creating individual; security and an unique identity for each of the institutes at the central level.

Reader ROI:

How a school invested in a sophisticated IT setupImproved communication and speedy accessibility

Organization:The new age IT-enable private schools in India make you want to become a student again. Leading the pack is the educational institutes of Rajasthani Sammelan, a 60 year-old social and charitable trust, with 11 educational institutions under its belt. Today, it has 15,000 students within a campus comprising nine institutes in Malad, Mumbai. It offers degree level, post-graduate and professional courses as well as education for children.

 To cope with its rapid growth in student numbers, RS has built a new 12-storey Educational Complex, with over 190,000 square feet of floor space housing a Management Institute, World College of Media Studies, Degree College, Junior College, Professional courses institute, an international school, ICSE Board School, SSC Board Hindi and English Medium Scholl, a women’s hostel and a sports complex.

For us, 24x7connectivity is very important –If we have a problem during an online exam – which did happen in the past– it’s bad for students and our reputation

Business Case:Till recently, each of the institutes had their own separate server which would serve individual computing needs. In order to make the IT setup more efficient and allow centralized control, Goraksha wanted to consolidate it in one data centre connected with a single central network, with the separate institutes linked to a common data centre while retaining separate virtual local area networks (VLANs). “We wanted to build a single robust IT set-up that allows my students and faculty 24/7 access to all necessary information,” says Ranjit Goraksha, general manager of IT at Rajasthani Sammelan.

Goraksha was inspired by the IT setup at other institutions but he wanted to build something better.  “Other colleges have limitations to their setups, such as a lack of proper backup systems,” says Goraksha. “I wanted to improve on these areas so we could avoid any IT failures which would disturb day-to-day work.”

 The state-of the art IT infrastructure at RS gives us a delightful insight of the schools of the future. For example, students who’ve missed a class or lecture can stream the same off the internet. It also uses email to communicate with students, and stores all student details on a single database. The institute also conducts online exams.  “For us, 24x7connectivity is very important –If we have a problem during an online exam – which did happen in the past– it’s bad for students and our reputation,” says Goraksha.

 With the dual goal of proving a centralized database and high-speed connectivity, RS began the discussing the idea building a data centre right within the institute’s campus.

 Project: RS wanted a single vendor to provide the entire infrastructure, including storage, servers and networking and they chose HP and its local partner, Xperts Information Technologies.

 The project began with building an 800-square-foot data centre, that replaces the existing multiple networks. The servers provide separate computing facilities for each of the nine institutes, but are connected so files can be shared.

 The biggest challenge was laying the networking cable itself across the huge campus, and creating individual; security and an unique identity for each of the institutes at the central level. It took RS three month to overcome the challenges and design and implement the data center.

 The networks included two core switches for redundancy that can support 200 Internet Protocol (IP) cameras used for CCTV to improve security of the building, and 50 wireless access points which allow staff and students to access the network conveniently.

 All of the cameras and access controls are powered from switches that provide Power over Ethernet (PoE) on each floor, eliminating the need for separate power supplies. To address Goraksha’s special concern over backups, the PoE switches are backed up by an UPS.

  Benefits:  Improved communication and speedy accessibility have been the greatest benefits of the project. “The students benefit from a reliable website (www.rajasthani.org.in), a strong email system and a good SMS text message system so they are always in touch with us,” says Goraksha. Students are updated with information on any new courses or special events that are offered and that they might wish to attend, which did not happen effectively before.

The centralized online database allows students to reserve any book through the online library system without having to go to the library in person. The trust also subscribes to online journals and magazines, and provides access to these via the IT network for staff, helping them to remain up-to-date with their field.

Each institute now has an interactive ‘smart board’ and through the central server which the teachers use to show video and audio clips to students.

To ensure uptime is maintained, all systems are redundantly configured, with a standby machine for each server, mirrored hard disks for storage, redundancy in the internet connectivity and two UPS systems. “If one UPS fails, the second takes over, and if both fail, we have a generator,” comments Goraksha.

For us, 24x7connectivity is very important –If we have a problem during an online exam – which did happen in the past– it’s bad for students and our reputation