Challenge

As the biggest specialist arts and design university in Europe, the University of the Arts London (UAL) has plenty of people coming and going. Over 19,000 students from over 100 countries, more than 3500 staff, and a further 20,000 students doing short courses every year.

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The University made the decision to move email and collaboration into the cloud by deploying Microsoft Office 365. To make this new platform secure and accessible for all users, anywhere, anytime a secure authentication service was needed, one that would be compatible with the University’s existing identity management solution.

This service needed to be robust, flexible, scalable, and operable from all devices, from the University’s own Apple computers to users’ personal BYOD devices of any platform.






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How could UAL ensure secure, dependable Office 365 access - for every user, and every type of device?

ping
Solution

Removing the barriers to secure Office 365 access, for every user

The University chose to deploy ProofID’s hosted authentication service for Microsoft Office 365, built on PingFederate, the market-leading enterprise federation and SSO product. Fully managed and hosted in a Tier-3 data centre in the UK, the service encompasses social login, and seamless login for domain–joined computers.

This solution provided 100% compatibility with Office 365 from all devices, irrespective of operating system or the location of the user and device. Access to Office 365 was also assured in the event of a local ISP outage.

Counter Vector
COMPANY FIGURES
0  Students
from over 100 countries now have secure access to Office 365 from any device.
0  Staff
benefit from reliable authentication across all platforms and locations. 
0  Countries
represented across the student body with seamless Office 365 access. 
0  Students
from over 100 countries now have secure access to Office 365 from any device.
0  Staff
benefit from reliable authentication across all platforms and locations. 
0  Countries
represented across the student body with seamless Office 365 access. 
Results

Dependable access without compromise, for better learning outcomes

UAL now benefits from reliable, secure access that all of its students and staff can depend on. Furthermore, with all data hosted in a UK data centre, the University has been able to retain data sovereignty, which was one of their key priorities from the solution.

This has given UAL a strong platform from which to maximise the potential of next-generation identity management, and eases the process of integrating more applications and services in the future.


  • Secure anytime-anywhere access to Office 365
  • Full compatibility with all devices and platforms
  • Reliable access even when the local ISP is out of action
  • Data sovereignty through UK hosting
  • Seamless login and social login-compatible
  • Stronger platform for future innovation and integration

“ProofID’s service ensures that our users have reliable access to Office 365, even if, for example, we had a local ISP outage. Being hosted in the UK is also of prime importance for us from a data sovereignty perspective. We were also impressed by ProofID’s vision around next generation identity management.”

Jim Nottingham
Chief Information Officer and Director of University IT Services, University of the Arts London
Jim Nottingham
Chief Information Officer and Director of University IT Services, University of the Arts London

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