Scalable Cloud Strategies: Values for Higher Education
The CSU system made a key decision to standardize on the cloud-based Boomi integration platform that has allowed the CSU institutions and Chancellor's Office to integrate many key enterprise applications and automate hundreds of processes that have a positive impact on the student experience — accelerating things like financial aid applications and the ability to transfer and move among institutions.
The cloud-and-security enhancements, added in 2024, have only taken all development, test, and production instances of PeopleSoft to much greater levels. Today, the CSU Oracle-PeopleSoft implementation is one of the largest in the world. Engaging with Unisys, the university moved it from a hybrid data center at Equinix to the AWS cloud. As a result, the CSUs have not only improved applications dramatically, but have also created scores of new capabilities that are included in the rich array of cloud services offed in AWS.
Grush: How does Unisys approach the challenge of improving cloud services to a large higher education system like the CSU?
Wessells: Our approach at Unisys is data-driven, security-centric, and cloud-enabled. Our work with the CSU IT teams has demonstrated that modern cloud infrastructure from AWS serves as a catalyst for improved IT services and enhanced security, and it provides a much more agile IT environment to improve services to the CSU community.
Our approach at Unisys is data-driven, security-centric, and cloud-enabled.
Amazon coupled with the use of Boomi's master data hub and integration solutions is a game changer in terms of service enhancements to students — including financial aid applications, transfers, enrollment services, degree planning, alumni relations, and so on. Beyond enhanced services, cloud modernization is a stimulus for much greater analytics capabilities with solutions like Snowflake Data Analytics, or Amazon Quicksight Q.
Beyond enhanced services, cloud modernization is a stimulus for much greater analytics capabilities.
Grush: So that is a very highly scaled integration. I'm hearing that you are moderating a session about it at EDUCAUSE this month…
Wessells: Yes. This is a wonderful success story in terms of cloud-and-security transformation and integration at scale for the CSU system. It's designed so attendees will hear the story directly from CSU executive IT leaders, in their own words. And they'll speak about additional major advancements that have been possible because of the AWS cloud transformation — security solutions, data virtualization, and how several cloud implementations have resulted in a very mature, sophisticated cloud infrastructure that serves the students, faculty, and staff extremely well. It's an exciting story that the CSU leaders have to share with their peers.
Grush: Can you tell me a little more about transformative cloud security? How can a large multi-campus system like the CSU avoid the catastrophe of an attack that could spread through the system?
Wessells: There are several important security enhancements. One of the major things that the AWS cloud facilitated for the CSU system is cloud network microsegmentation. It allows for the isolation of the campus ERP, the production systems for all 23 campuses.
Previously, before its ERP systems were migrated to AWS, there was considerable risk that a ransomware event at one of the CSU campuses could easily spread throughout the 23 universities in the system.
With the AWS cloud network microsegmentation, it isolates those production instances of the compromised institution such that none of the other university campuses, none of the other institutions in the CSU system would be impacted. Period. So that's a massive step forward. Furthermore, the Delphix cloud data vault would allow that compromised institution to recover rapidly using an immutable, "air-gapped" copy of their production data.