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University of Hawaii

Almost 5,000 miles southwest of New York City, on the tropical island of Oahu, Hawaii, IT systems director Brian Chee is getting his storage network in order.

It’s not all Hawaiian skirts and huli-huli sauce, you know,” says Chee, who has worked for the IT systems department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) for seven years. “Some people do have a problem with the view, though!”

The University of Hawaii (UH) is an interesting case study from a network storage perspective, as it's spread out across four islands -- Oahu, Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui -- and comprises three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment training center, and five education centers.

In addition to the flagship campus at of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the UH system also includes the 3,000-student University of Hawaii at Hilo on the island of Hawaii and the smaller University of Hawaii-West Oahu on the leeward side of Oahu.

The education centers are located in the more remote areas of the state and support the rural communities via distance education. This is where Chee and his team of seven other IT staffers have a slight challenge on their hands. An increasingly important part of their job is to extend UH’s curriculum to these community colleges. “It makes sense, as after-hours education is a way of increasing revenue for the University,” says Chee.

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