How UCAS uses Splunk to strengthen students’ supportive data

As a UK’s inhabitant “clearing residence for courses”, many people are substantially many wakeful of a work UCAS does when a A-level formula are expelled any year.

With that comes not usually a students’ supportive personal information such as ethnicity, gender or religion, though also examination formula data, that UCAS receives 6 to 8 weeks before a students do.

UCAS uses this information to give universities an thought of how many students they should expect, though also to envision how many students will have to go by a clearing routine if they are not matched with a courses they had hoped for.

Gibbs says: “It’s rarely trusted data, and for a sold time of year, really really confidential. We have to denote both to a business and to several authorities that we are treating that with a due caring that it requires.”

When Gibbs assimilated UCAS 4 years ago, a organization had some anti-virus and hazard showing in place, though Gibbs says it was “a bit fragmented”.

With Splunk now restraining these manifold systems together, the large information software plays a outrageous partial in UCAS’s confidence initiatives, behaving as a “nervous system” for a several areas opposite a business that confidence information might be entrance from.

Gibbs says: “Splunk takes all of these manifold alerts and notifications of confidence events and provides them in a unchanging approach so they can be analysed, correlated so we can benefit a most deeper bargain of what’s going on opposite a systems networks.”

Collecting this information in one Splunk dashboard creates it easier to consider either UCAS’s systems are scrupulously patched, a “health state” of a several systems and a odds of a cyber attack, he says.

During a high volume time of year for UCAS, when students are receiving their examination formula and securing their university places, operational functions are also undeniably important.

Gibbs explains: “When we are going by a acknowledgment and clearing process, it is positively pivotal that we can see that we’re in a good health state, both from a confidence and an operational viewpoint. Splunk also provides us with operational information.”

It also uses a height for things such as monitoring amicable media – that can be critical when traffic with a younger, tech-savvy user bottom that UCAS has.

“We do take sold caring to lane what’s function with a user base,” says Gibbs. “We guard things like amicable websites and demeanour for any gibberish around UCAS.”

This can assistance a organization to respond some-more fast to issues it might not have been wakeful of previously, though has picked adult on by monitoring amicable media mentions.