Some details
The Client
Northumbria University has a global reputation for academic excellence and working relationships with a host of major employers, including Nike, IBM, Nissan, Proctor &, Gamble, the BBC, and the NHS.
Since 2007, Arch have had our own long term and very successful relationship with Northumbria. We’ve previously worked with them on a website for their sports facilities and also provided
both print and digital artwork, so when they approached us for a new platform we were eager to be involved.The Challenge
Northumbria didn’t have a reliable platform for students to develop and test their skills for some of the core uni modules. The new solution would also need to work with the existing student database within Northumbria Uni. The university staff required the ability to retain full overriding control over all student accounts.
The students themselves needed to be able to host PHP, HTML, CSS and Javascript in a safe and properly configured environment. Ideally students should be able to access a MySQL database, terminal and SFTP, while also having access to a webserver to host their HTML content. This would need to then be fully locked down to individual student containers for security.
The Solution
We designed Northumbria Uni a linux based online server solution. This consisted of unlimited jailed user environments and allowed staff to enable or disable access as and when they required..
The student profiles automatically loaded from the university database and students have full STFP, SSH and MySQL access to the server. A 24/7 monitoring and alert system was also included.
The Results
Northumbria Uni were really pleased with the solution. It’s still used as a core uni resource each academic year and we’ve worked with them on many upgrades over the years. It’s now some 13 years later and the system is still going strong!
