University of Sydney Adopts a University-wide Code Repository
Client:
University of SydneyChallenge:
- University code projects were widely dispersed, insecure and lacking version control
- Academic and student intellectual property was inadequately protected
- Academics were unable to easily share code and projects with colleagues and students
Solution:
- GitHub Enterprise, cloud based development platform, was selected as a central code repository
- DXC Technology was brought in as strategic partner, implementer and service provider
- Data sovereignty was assured, as all data remains on university-controlled servers in Australia
Results:
- Solution delivered on time; well-received by researchers and students
- The University can now provide its researchers and students with unlimited code repositories, including version control
- The system is secure, yet fully maintained and serviced
The Challenge
The University of Sydney, Australia’s oldest university, is spread over a number of large, sprawling campuses. Its teachers, researchers and students work and study all over Australia; the university offers a wide range of academic programs including art, nursing, social science, business, dentistry, IT, health science, natural science, engineering, architecture, medicine, music and law. The University’s software and algorithm code repositories were big and sprawling too, and that was a problem.
Across its academic programs, many of the University’s researchers and students create, share and work with code. Unfortunately, the way they were storing that code was far from efficient. “We had fragmented code management systems all over the place,” explains Rai Fergusson, Business Program Manager at the university. “We had people who had servers sitting under their desks, just to store their code. We also had people using storage platforms that are not really designed for code and version control.”
Something had to change — and it did. The University devised a plan to set up a single centralised code repository for all its staff and students.
The Solution
To select a solution, the University formed an academic-led evaluation committee to review several code management systems. Ultimately, this committee selected GitHub Enterprise, the commercial version of of GitHub, the well-known software development platform. GitHub Enterprise includes tools for code hosting, code review, project and team management, social coding and documentation. GitHub Enterprise also offers high-level security and access control. It can be hosted either on-premises or in a private cloud using a public-cloud service.
The GitHub team, in turn, recommended that the University bring in DXC Technology as a premier regional partner on the project.
“When the University originally approached us around engaging on GitHub Enterprise, we immediately thought of a partner like DXC,” says Sam Hunt, GitHub’s Asia Pacific director. “That’s because of their broad skills around the GitHub solution and their ability to provide managed services.”
Indeed, DXC offered expertise in the tools that connect via APIs and to GitHub to extend the developer environment, as well as experience in managed services and supporting customer solutions on a long-term basis.
A contract was signed in early 2017, and the DXC/GitHub team delivered a fully managed service, hosted on the University’s private cloud, in roughly 12 weeks. “By university standards, that’s a very quick deployment,” Fergusson says.
The University of Sydney views DXC as a trusted partner, adds Dr. Jeremy Hammond, the University’s Director of Strategic Ventures. “DXC advised us on architecture and design and implementation processes,” he explains. “That allowed our project team to focus on engagement with the academics, while they got busy with delivering the actual product.”
The Benefits
The new GitHub-based system, officially dubbed the University Code Repository, is now online, providing a university-wide resource for code storage, management and review. It’s also being used for general collaboration — letting teams share work, discuss changes and get feedback — all in one place. It allows the University to keep its intellectual property safe and usable.
The GitHub system also makes the University of Sydney the first university in Australia to have a site-wide code repository for all students and staff. “This genuinely sets us apart from our competitors and peers in the Australian market,” says Dr. Hammond. “Our students and academic researchers now have the best possible tools they might need to undertake their research — and that gives them a competitive advantage.”
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