As reported by Computerworld, the university announced in 2004 it had implemented one of the world's first "stretched" clusters whereby two geographically separated systems transparently host its online financial accounting application.

The system was built with Alpha-based HP Tru64 Unix systems, which will be supported until 2011, but will be migrated to Red Hat Linux on Intel servers as soon as October, according to the university's test team leader John Soper.

While uncertain as to what type of server hardware will be used, Soper said some trial machines are already in place.

This move is in keeping with the information services division's original roadmap - to use AlphaServer Unix technology and look at Linux on Intel after a few more years of development.

At the time, the decision to purchase Alpha was made when there was no equivalent technology available with the same price-performance, according to IT staff.