Blackboard is a leading supplier of e-learning for universities, colleges and K12 schools around the world. More than2,200 institutions currently licence Blackboard® software products and services; more than 500 of which are located outside of the United States.
The launch of this new data centre allows Blackboard’s European customers to host their Blackboard e-Learning initiatives in Europe, and complements the two successful data centres in the United States, which host more than 330 institutions. The European Data Centre is a 24x7x365 Tier 1 facility, providing a highly reliable, secure and cost effective hosting environment for teaching, learning, and research.
Ahmar Abbas, Vice President of Blackboard ASP Services said:
“A significant number of licensed clients trust Blackboard to host and manage their Blackboard applications in the United States. We know that a growing number of our international clients are also looking for Blackboard to host their e-Learning environment and this new facility in Europe gives them direct access to these services.”
Some examples of higher education institutions currently hosting with Blackboard who will benefit from the transfer of ASP services to Europe include Agenzia Veneto Innovazione in Italy; EuRatio Akademie AG in Switzerland; Institut Quimic de Sarria, Ramon Llull University in Spain and Kenyatta University in Kenya.
The first UK university to take advantage of the new European ASP services is the University of Derby. Mary Hope, Head of IT Applications, said:
“The University of Derby has a growing number of pure e-learning students studying in all parts of the world. It is vital that the learning materials can be accessed at all times and the ASP solution using the new European Data Centre enables us to have a fast set-up time and reliable 24 x 7 access”.
About Blackboard ASP Services
Blackboard has been providing ASP services to its customers since 1999 and currently over 330 clients across the world use these services. Blackboard currently supports 10 Terabytes of course content, more than 1,000 servers and receives 72 million http requests each day.
About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard is a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the education industry. Formed in 1997, Blackboard began as a primary contractor to the IMS Global Learning Consortium of universities, formed to develop technical standards for on-line learning applications. The first product was developed at Cornell University and today The Blackboard Academic Suite TM is a suite of three independent yet integrated e-learning software products, which enable a Networked Learning Environment. The company’s headquarters is in Washington DC.
Blackboard’s UK customers include the universities of Durham, Cambridge, York, Dundee, Kingston, Derby and Sheffield Hallam and amongst FE colleges using Blackboard are City of Sunderland, Guildford, Brooklands and Newcastle colleges.
Kaynak : 