There are eight reasons why Macquarie University is moving its student management system (AMIS) to the cloud on Saturday 21 September.

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1. Improving support services. We made a commitment in Our University: A Framing of Futures to improve our support services by investing in modernised systems. Aligned to this and the Student Success Strategic Framework, AMIS 8 cloud transition project is the first major step in renewal our student management system (AMIS). The AMIS renewal will provide opportunities for seamless network interfaces and delivery of enhanced student services. This is a foundational project in our transformation and a demonstration of Macquarie University’s commitment to student success.
2. Building a foundation for other enhancements: AMIS 8 is the foundation for AMIS 9. On the weekend of 21 September, we take the first important step in rolling out a schedule of student system enhancements that will build the foundation of a seamless student experience.
3. Providing easier system access via a standard web interface. To access the system staff and students will only need a computer with an Internet connection and a web browser.
4. Ensuring a better user experience (for staff and students). Moving to the cloud will mean the number of servers supporting the system will vary based on system load. This will deliver significant financial and environmental savings for Macquarie University with  flexibility of an optimised system that will respond efficiently to system peaks and troughs.
5. Protecting our system infrastructure. A multi-level approach to infrastructure security for hardware and software will provide data encryption, hacking mitigation strategies, continual penetration testing and a complete service monitoring, protecting student and staff personal information.
6. Enhancing our Business Continuity Strategy to keep the business running when there is an outage.  This means, if there is a catastrophic system failure, the fail-over service will be triggered to ensure our student system will continue to function with minimal impact on students and staff.
7. Accessing Software as a Service (SaaS), the latest security features, and a predetermined schedule for bug fixes, software enhancements and performance improvements will provide an improved testing regime including automated tests for functionality and performance.
8. Reporting and Commonwealth compliance. Our current system doesn’t have the functionality for new 2020 government reporting obligations. AMIS 8 will ensure compliance and deliver enhanced reporting.

So, now you know, and the truth is we’re pouring the foundations for our new system that we’ll deliver over the next 18 months!

Program Beacon will be rolling out enhancements over the next few months, including single sign-on (using OneID) for staff and students [AMIS 8.1] and, during 2020, the Program Beacon goal is to optimise performance whenever we can to deliver improved support services for staff and all our students. We’ll continue to keep you informed as we progress.

When are we doing it?

The AMIS 8 upgrade is scheduled for Saturday September 21, 2019.

During the upgrade, AMIS will be offline from 6pm (18:00) Friday 20 September until 8am (08:00) Monday 23 September.

We’ll post a reminder in This Week, send reminders to key stakeholders, and display a slash page for students in the e-student portal.

For any further information email beacon@mq.edu.au where you can also register for Program Beacon.