SIT first in Australasia to work with Microsoft on cloud workstation
Publish Date: Thursday, 2 July 2020
SIT first in Australasia to work with Microsoft on cloud workstation
#Community Newsletter #Technology

SIT is the first organisation in Australasia to undertake a new ‘workstation in the cloud’ collaboration with Microsoft. The offer from Microsoft helped SIT’s IT team scale to meet the demands of the entire organisation working and studying remotely.

With on-campus teaching suspended due to the COVID-19 lockdown, SIT’s programmes were taught fully online from end of March to mid-May, and with Microsoft’s support the Digital Media students were able to access high tech equipment in the cloud, with Engineering students set to be next.

SIT provides four dedicated computer labs on- campus for Film, Animation, Game Design, and Fashion Design students. The computers are highly specialised, costing thousands of dollars per machine, meaning few students would be able to replicate these at home. Students on these programmes go on to internships and employment at places such as Weta and Disney, so they require access to a high level of technical resources to learn their craft.

Head of Faculty Hamish Small was delighted with the results, and said it would ensure that SIT Digital Media students would have total confidence in being able to continue their studies uninterrupted at home, regardless of any future changes to COVID -19 alert levels.

SIT’s Chief Information Officer Nick Elder praised the Microsoft and SIT project team. “Microsoft are great partners, we work very closely with them anyway, but they have stepped up even further during the COVID crisis. It was an incredible opportunity to have our very talented engineers working alongside the Microsoft consultants setting up this cutting-edge system.”