Eurotux: over a decade enhancing teaching at Escola Superior de Educação de Paula Frassinetti
For over a decade, Eurotux has played a key role in improving the technological infrastructure and promoting innovation at Escola Superior de Educação de Paula Frassinetti (ESEPF), a pioneer for more than 20 years in adopting new technologies in teaching.
Following the implementation of a set of funded projects, and prompted by the restructuring of the human resources assigned to managing ESEPF’s IT network services, the educational institution decided to go to market in search of the ideal partner. With external access to sensitive information on the School’s internal network at stake, José Luís de Almeida Gonçalves, director of ESEPF, admits they were particularly “careful in choosing a company with an ethical stance”, he said. “And, since then, we have had no regrets, quite the opposite. The services provided, the advice given, and the recommendations made by Eurotux for adopting the best products on the market have always earned our trust”, he added.
José Luís de Almeida speaks of “a professional relationship of shared trust between ‘colleagues’, marked by great rigour and transparency, from which our academic community greatly benefits”. Given the sensitivity of the services involved – which can include implementing security measures, firewalls, and configuring network systems, servers and other equipment – “we feel safe with Eurotux”. The results can be measured in an infrastructure the director describes as “secure and increasingly intelligent, tailored to our profiles/services.
Wide range of solutions
Another reason that led Escola Superior de Educação de Paula Frassinetti to choose to partner with Eurotux was its wide range of IT solutions and services, from consultancy to virtualisation, hosting and security solutions, backed by its reputation and experience. “The fact that they hold ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certification strengthened our relationship“, explained José Luís de Almeida.
In addition to providing hardware and software infrastructure and a wide variety of digital services, the most important part of the collaboration lies in the provision of specialised technical services. A clear example is the support, maintenance and monitoring services for the infrastructure hosted on the local network, which include system administration on Windows and Linux virtual platforms, network management, security management, and management of storage and backup solutions.
But not only that. Eurotux is also responsible for providing external data centre services, including hosting, off-site backup and mailing services, as well as support for Open Source technologies.
For its part, and so that the partnership can be truly enjoyed, ESEPF has been making efforts to modernise and evolve its infrastructure in order to maximise availability and security, ensuring the smooth running of its internal services and of the services it provides to its students.
The core infrastructure hosted at the institution’s headquarters is based on a virtualisation cluster running the oVirt solution, which uses IBM storage and Lenovo hosts and hosts a set of different virtual machines on Windows and Linux platforms. Networking (switching and wireless) is based on the Cisco brand, while the backup solution runs BareOS software, with off-site backup of the most important information being carried out to Eurotux’s data centre. Local perimeter security is ensured by an OPNsense firewall, and endpoints and servers are protected by Sophos Central Intercept X. The email service is managed through the Microsoft 365 solution. For a range of services accessible online, Eurotux’s hosting services are used, which include digital services such as domains and certificates.
Greater effectiveness and efficiency
As a result of the various solutions implemented and investment choices made, the Director says that, compared with the current virtualisation infrastructure, there is “greater energy efficiency and a lower maintenance cost than with the previous system of physical servers”. He adds: “Our network infrastructure has become more stable and robust, making it easier to identify critical points or unstable services, and, as a result, our academic community (students, teaching staff, employees) now has better conditions for digitalisation in education to move forward”.
For these reasons, ESEPF considers Eurotux, above all, an in-house service. “One of ‘our own’, rather than an outsourced service”, he pointed out. “The longevity of this partnership, spanning more than 10 years, attests to the effectiveness of the assistance, the ease of communication with support, and the confidence we have in the up-to-date knowledge of products and services that [Eurotux’s technicians] possess, […] this partnership is here to stay”.
The ESEPF universe
Escola Superior de Educação de Paula Frassinetti belongs to the Congregation of the Dorothean Sisters, which runs a vast international network of educational institutions in 16 countries, involving around 5,000 teachers and 42,000 students.
With its own style of education, building on the legacy left by Saint Paula Frassinetti, “the institution’s mission is to train people, both personally and professionally, to a recognised standard of scientific, pedagogical and ethical excellence, through the combination of teaching, scientific research and service to the community”, said José Luís de Almeida. ESEPF’s aim, therefore, is to prepare students to face the challenges of the job market, contributing to the development of society through education.
In strategic terms, the vision is that, by 2026, ESEPF will be an institution that has deepened a relational education model, recognised for the quality of its pedagogical practices supported by applied research, and a promoter of cooperation from the perspective of global education and of the consortium of the Dorothean International Network of Higher Education.
In its face-to-face format, ESEPF currently teaches undergraduate degrees, master’s degrees and postgraduate courses to more than 450 national and international students. In its e-learning strand, it provides training to 560 students through its Distance Learning Centre. “Its international outlook is reflected in the fact that, in recent years, it has provided certified training in the PALOP countries to more than a thousand education professionals”.
The longevity of this partnership, spanning more than 10 years, attests to the effectiveness of the assistance, the ease of communication with support, and the confidence we have in the up-to-date knowledge of products and services that they possess […] this partnership is here to stay.
José Luís de Almeida Gonçalves, Director of ESEPF
