In the quest by the Government of Ghana to improve the IT connectivity infrastructure on various Public Universities across the country, the World Bank through the Ministry of Communications and Digitization (MoC)/ e-Transform Project Coordination Secretariat has selected an IT consultant, Mr. Kingsford Boateng to lead the execution of the exercise at UENR.
On September 15, 2021, the IT Directorate of the University arranged a meeting with Mr. Boateng to discuss the current state of UENR’s IT infrastructure.
The meeting allowed the Consultant to gather the requisite data and made some recommendations for the IT system on the various campuses. Among the recommendations were proposals to do a unified communication through the integration of cell phones and other computing devices, replacing UENR’s present NAS system with SAN system as the preferred storage system, to do a Disaster Recovery Site at the Dormaa Campus, institute a data Backup System, use High-end routers and PoE switches which will enable the University to run VoIP services, change the core switches from 1GB to 10GB for faster routing, replace all Wireless Access Points (APs) with bidirectional APs and have enough quantities to cover the entire campus.
Again there would be an installation of the new generational firewall to tackle the 80/20 intrusion menace, install AVs (Anti-virus) on all endpoint machines, deploy a Network Management System (NMS) for monitoring the network and all the services that traverse on it and install the OPEN Manager software for Helpdesk activities among others.
Commenting on the current state of the University’s network, the IT Director, Mr. Robert Cudjoe explained that the University since its formation has made several efforts to provide its Community with good internet connectivity. Despite the hindrances, he was confident that the arrival of the World Bank’s project support is timely and would help address the challenges aforementioned.
It is estimated that the new system will be deployed and commissioned by end of September 2022.
Other members of the team from the ITD were the Head of Network Infrastructure Division, Mr. Augustine Amura and Head of the Software Application Development Division, Mr. Gilbert Kwadwo Mensah.
