OpenStack Object storage or “SWIFT” is designed to store : files, videos, analytics data, web content and backups...

(Meet the team - from left to right:  Adelle Lotter, Ciellie Jansen Van Vuuren)

NWU developed an integration between eFundi and Openstack Swift - a distributed object storage system. The Apereo foundation included this development into the core release of the newest version of Sakai (eFundi is the NWU implementation of Sakai). This is the first of the NWU developments that have been incorporated in the core and we are very proud of this achievement. The need to store large video, text, images and other learning content and objects are constantly increasing.  Therefor lecturers are making use of more and more of these, in all formats in their eFundi sites. eFundi file and site limits became annoying. This growing
demand for more storage lead to an investigation into affordable solutions. It was important to find a solution that would not compromise on performance, stability and availability of content, yet be affordable and sustainable. OpenStack object store project known as Swift, offers a cost effective, highly available, extremely scalable object store with integration capabilities to several applications. It checked all the boxes and the development were started in 2015. We were thrilled when the foundation agreed and used the code as part of the new release. eFundi will be upgraded to Sakai 11 during December and will be in production by January 2017.