News > Network Infrastructure Contract Awarded to IBM Bahamas
New Network Infrastructure Contract Awarded to IBM Bahamas College of The Bahamas President, Janyne M Hodder, announced on March 23rd that IBM Bahamas had been awarded the $1.8 million contract to upgrade The College’s network that supports the information technology systems used on all The College’s campuses and which will enhance our ability to service the tertiary educational needs of the country. IBM will partner with CISCO System and Walker Industries, a Bahamian company, to provide The College’s students, faculty and staff with a robust, high performing and secure infrastructure to support current operations and the changing requirements as The College transitions to university status. At a high level the project will redesign the existing College Network infrastructure; significantly improve the performance of the existing network; upgrade the network to support current and future requirements; expand the reach of the network to all of The College’s locations throughout The Bahamas; enhance the reliability of the network by supplying full redundancy to ensure that the network will always be available when users need it; and deliver an infrastructure that supports remote learning and any other applications made available by The College. Approximately 40% of the cost will be met by a donation from the Lyford Cay Foundation.  Registrar, Dr Danny Davis, enthusiastically stated, “As we continue to position ourselves to “build the nation through education” our partnership with IBM to upgrade our network strengthens our capacity to service the archipelago directly and it positively impacts our strategic goal to provide resources for students, faculty and staff for better access to electronic media for teaching, learning, research and administration. To develop a platform for distance education and build a new data centre, upgrade the network infrastructure and improve security and data protection.” Felix Stubbs, General Manager of IBM Bahamas, expressed his delight at his company’s having been selected to carry out the network upgrade and went on to say, “IBM shares many of the same ideologies as The College of The Bahamas in the fact that we are leaders of innovation, research, development and execution and have continually adapted to a changing world to ensure that we can provide solutions to our customers enabling them to be successful and to excel in their specific fields.” The new network infrastructure is expected to be up and running in time for the beginning of the next academic year in August.
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