“It allows staff to securely access the system if they have to stay at home for any reason or need to carry out system testing out of hours. Remote working is now regarded as a core element of the IT architecture and so the solution’s high level of security and reliability as well as its ease of use have been vital for our users and our IT support team.” - Ben Heath, Head of Financial Reporting

Providing secure, remote access for staff at the University of Oxford

University of Oxford is one of the top ten universities in the world. As such its Business Services and Projects (BSP) team identified a need for staff to have excellent remote access to IT resources - the same level of IT access remotely as they enjoyed on-site. 

The solution needed to be high performance, easy to use and available 24/7. Robust security was a given. This project would support the University’s ongoing strategy and objectives, while ensuring greater business continuity in case of major disruption. 

CAE worked with BSP to identify and deliver an outstanding solution. 

CAE designed, installed, configured, and continues to support the solution which consists of: 

  • Installation and Configuration of Citrix XenApp farm, Access Gateway Appliances, Active Directory Domain and Identity Manager 
  • Configuration of Published Desktop and ZenWorks integration for dynamic application delivery into remote session 
  • Fully documented installation 

The Outcome 

400 remote staff working for the University now have full access and the same user experience as those on site, enabling greater flexible working. The solution is reliable and easy to use for staff and the IT team and allows for out-of-hours system testing. 

Security is robust with secure digital identity of authorised personnel and only authenticated users can access private and sensitive data.