Results story
Building its SaaS offering on IBM Cloud compute, storage and network infrastructure gives Jenzabar the scale, resilience, security, performance, flexibility and geographic reach to meet enterprise-class needs for a growing client base at highly competitive pricing. The ability to specify dedicated bare metal servers enables the company to own and manage its own private resources, adding the security and convenience typical of an in-house infrastructure to the flexible, cost-effective benefits of the cloud.
While dedicated to remaining a top SIS solution vendor in Higher Education, Jenzabar continues to expand its Managed Service offerings and utilizes the comprehensive range of solutions available on the IBM cloud. This service will eliminate the need for institutions to maintain their own IT infrastructure. Using the IBM Cloud removes the delays associated with specifying, ordering and deploying new hardware; all the team has to do is access the IBM Cloud portal and configure the appropriate resources.
"One of the really impressive aspects of IBM Cloud is the client portal, where we can order and manage the environment ourselves, in a fast, responsive way," says Ortiz. "Today, if a client needs another 12 TB of disk space, I can do that from my mobile in five minutes. The agility and responsiveness make IBM Cloud a real business enabler for Jenzabar."
With more than 60 data centers worldwide, the IBM Cloud network helps Jenzabar satisfy the local needs of clients in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe. If a client requires that data be retained within a specific geographic boundary, Jenzabar can specify the physical location of the resources. For example, one client is based outside the U.S., but for regulatory reasons needs their data to be retained within the lower 48 states – a simple click in the client portal made this possible. Ortiz says: "The configurability and management control offered by IBM Cloud bare metal servers enables us to grow our business in a way not previously possible."
Choosing IBM Cloud has simplified operations for Jenzabar, reducing costs and enabling it to serve a wider range of higher-education institutions more cost-effectively. In the past, the up-front hardware investment put Jenzabar solutions beyond financial reach for some smaller schools and colleges. Now, even institutions with fewer than one hundred students find it cost-effective to sign up for a Jenzabar SIS solution.
"IBM Cloud enables us to give smaller institutions access to computing resources they typically would not be able to afford or deploy on campus, backed by the most advanced security, scalability and flexibility," says Ortiz. "For larger clients, we offer an escape route from outdated on-prem data centers with failing hardware and insufficient bandwidth, at a lower cost than they could achieve for themselves. These clients can save money while providing better services to a happier community of students and staff."
For new clients with no existing on-prem infrastructure, choosing a Jenzabar SIS solution on the IBM Cloud enables full focus on efficient student administration rather than the platform. "We took on a start-up school a few years back," recalls Ortiz. "They started in our cloud, stayed in our cloud, and have grown in our cloud from literally zero to 5,000 students, and we have scaled them as needed in a pay-as-you-go model."
Ortiz concludes: "By selecting IBM Cloud compute, storage and network infrastructure, we have opened up a wealth of opportunity, for streamlining our business, creating additional service options for clients, and for generating additional revenue streams through new service offerings. We are excited to see where the future will take us."