University of Southern Queensland modernises IT platform

University of Southern Queensland has modernised its core IT infrastructure with Nutanix Cloud Platform, covering systems used across its campuses and online learning operations.

The project followed a review of the university's virtualisation environment to determine whether its existing setup could keep pace with demand from teaching, learning and student services. Rather than replace older systems with a similar arrangement, UniSQ moved to an integrated platform designed to simplify management and support a broader range of technology needs.

UniSQ serves more than 25,000 students across campuses in Toowoomba, Springfield and Ipswich, as well as online. That mix has made reliable access to digital platforms central to daily operations, particularly for learning management systems, staff and student portals, and back-office software.

The migration covered the university's test and development environment, comprising 500 virtual machines, as well as a production environment of about 300 virtual machines and appliances. Business-critical systems moved to the new platform included the Moodle-based learning and teaching system, the uConnect student and staff portal, the PeopleSoft ERP system and Oracle databases.

Stephen Payne, Associate Director, Hosting Infrastructure at UniSQ, said the decision was made with a long-term view of the institution's technology base.

"Changing something as fundamental as our virtualisation platform is a major decision and we approached it with a clear focus on long-term capability," Payne said. "We wanted to strengthen the foundations of our environment, improving reliability today while giving us the flexibility to evolve as our needs change. Nutanix provided a platform that aligned with that direction."

UniSQ worked with Nutanix Professional Services on the implementation, which was completed within the planned timeframe. That can be significant for higher education institutions, where student access to learning systems must be maintained through teaching periods, assessment windows and administrative cycles.

"We've achieved our migration on deadline," Payne said.

He said the timetable shaped both the rollout and the design work behind it.

"We had a clear timeframe to work to, and the combination of platform capability and implementation support allowed us to move quickly while maintaining confidence in the outcome," Payne said. "Equally important was ensuring we had the right architecture and documentation in place to support future initiatives, including containerisation, cloud integration and new digital services."

Operational shift

One of the clearest outcomes cited by UniSQ was a reduction in infrastructure footprint. Based on the university's internal assessment, it has cut that footprint by 52 per cent since adopting the Nutanix environment, while consolidating workloads and maintaining system performance.

That matters in part because virtualised environments in large institutions often become harder to manage over time as systems multiply and teams must monitor capacity, performance and maintenance across multiple layers of infrastructure. Simplifying that estate can reduce manual intervention and make it easier for IT teams to plan updates and allocate resources.

Payne described the previous environment as more labour-intensive to manage.

"Previously, managing performance and capacity required significant manual effort across multiple systems," Payne said. "Now we have a more streamlined environment where resources can be managed proactively, helping us maintain consistent performance for both students and staff."

UniSQ also linked the infrastructure change to reduced disruption during maintenance and upgrades. In higher education, those windows can be difficult to schedule because online study, trimester-based calendars and continuous assessment mean systems are needed throughout the year rather than around a single semester timetable.

"When you're supporting students studying across different modes and timeframes, downtime isn't really an option," Payne said. "The ability to manage and update systems while mitigating potential disruptions is a significant step forward for us."

Education demand

The announcement reflects a broader pattern in the education sector, where universities are reviewing core infrastructure as teaching, administration and student engagement rely increasingly on digital systems. Institutions that once separated campus-based and remote delivery now tend to run both simultaneously, placing greater emphasis on stable virtual environments and systems that can be adapted without major overhauls.

For suppliers such as Nutanix, universities are customers with a complex mix of legacy systems, specialist applications and fluctuating demand cycles. Migration projects in that market often focus less on headline expansion and more on resilience, operational efficiency and reducing the burden on internal IT teams.

Michael Alp, Managing Director, A/NZ at Nutanix, said the university's technology base would leave it better placed to respond to change.

"Education has always been critical, but the rapid-fire pace at which entire industries are evolving today makes education more important than it has ever been," Alp said. "University of Southern Queensland has doubled down on the future, helping ensure it has the infrastructure flexibility to not only keep pace with emerging technologies but to innovate ahead of them."