Success Stories

Passaic County Community College Gives New IT Upgrade From CDI An A+

Network, Server, Storage & Backup Systems Help College Serve Influx of Students

Five years ago, Passaic County Community College was a thriving community of higher learning, comfortably serving approximately 4,000 students at its main campus in Paterson. Today, the student population has increased by more than 80% to roughly 7,200, and the college has branched out to form two satellite learning centers – one in Wanaque, one in Wayne, and soon another to open in Passaic.

This tremendous growth rate over such a short period of time reflects several positive factors in the county: an increased interest in higher education; improvements in curriculum, services and facilities at the college; a boost in economic capacity and education funding. Yet, there’s a downside to fast-paced expansion: Very often, as was the case with PCCC, the technology side of the enterprise simply can’t keep up.

“All of us at Passaic County Community College are proud of the growth we’ve achieved,” notes Robert Mondelli, Vice President of Information Technology at PCCC. “However, we quickly realized that, in order to really maximize and build on that growth – to serve even more students, faculty and staff, and to serve them even better – we needed to make critical changes to our technology

Mr. Mondelli – who joined the PCCC IT team in 1979 as a programmer – recalls that, during the five-year “growth spurt” at PCCC, the college’s need for state-of-the-art IT capabilities became more evident. “Disaster recovery was our first priority, because our former system simply wouldn’t allow us to switch off at a moment’s notice if, for instance, there was a breach in IT security. We needed a much larger and more sophisticated capacity for hard data storage, and a better Business Continuance Plan,” he explains.

CDI provided numerous alternatives, and once a plan was established, the firm worked tirelessly at “winning the hearts and minds” of the PCCC IT team. “CDI and the vendor representatives met with us three or four times to ensure that we were completely comfortable with their approach before implementation began,” Mr. Mondelli says.

Once finalized, the plan was quickly installed without disruption to the college’s operations, and the PCCC team was fully trained on maximizing the new system’s powerful capabilities. The college received a new EVA data storage system from Hewlett-Packard, along with a Data Protector 3440 and a Unix 4440 server with 660 gigabytes – a significant increase from the old system’s 96-gig capacity. Mr. Mondelli notes that the new system is easy to use, yet boasts enough power to handle future demands of the new satellite learning center in Passaic, which is expected to open in 2006.

“Our Web site is accessible around the clock, and our systems are much more secure than they were just a few months ago,” Mr. Mondelli says. “ Now, the college’s staff members smile at us when they pass us in the halls, since the reports that used to take hours to run with the old system now take just a few minutes. “In all, I’d call the project a complete success!”

Passaic County Community College provides academic, cultural and technological resources and experiences to the residents of Passaic County. Through high quality college programs, the college helps to bring about more satisfying and productive personal lives, stronger community leadership, and a strengthened economic base.  Additionally, PCCC is committed to addressing community needs through English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction, basic skills instruction, career training, cultural programming, and collaboration with other organizations and agencies. For more information, visit Passaic County Community College on the Web at www.pccc.edu. 

Computer Design and Integration, LLC is a privately-held, infrastructure services company that combines innovative and comprehensive business solutions and service with experienced professionals to simplify the complexity of emerging technologies. Founded in 1995, and named to the VARBusiness 500 for five straight years, the company is one of the fastest-growing IT consulting firms in the Northeast. CDI offers complete solutions in Business Continuance, Backup & Recovery, Consolidations, Contract Management, Infrastructure Design, Migrations, Networking / Security, Storage, and Project Management.  For more information, visit CDI on the web at www.cdillc.com

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