Wisconsin School District Saves with NComputing
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Wisconsin School District Saves with NComputing, Lightspeed Systems; Revises Replacement Cycle Plan
In 2008 the School District of Menomonee Falls tested and deployed NComputing desktop virtualization solutions that enable four to seven students to simultaneously access a single PC. With Lightspeed Systems's Total Traffic Control filtering and security suite already deployed, the district is able to authenticate virtual users and secure the desktop in the new virtualization setup—at no extra cost. As a result of the test project's savings and overall effectiveness, the district has revised its replacement cycle to include more NComputing solutions.
The Challenge: Upgrading student computers on a budget
Today's challenge for schools is increasing computer access for students while living within the constraints of a tight, and sometimes dwindling, technology budget. Insufficient funds most often means hanging on to old computers beyond the normal four-to-five-year replacement period, which, of course, naturally leads to higher maintenance costs, frequent crashes, and not always being able to run the latest version of educational software. Further, the computer-to-student ratio cannot improve over time —a frustrating scenario for students, teachers, IT directors, and district officials with objectives to provide more technology training.
The Solution: Desktop virtualization that allows for AUP enforcement
With seven schools and more than 4,000 students just north of Milwaukee, network manager Larry Cayo first upgraded the high school's science area. The three NComputing X300 hosts each serve four desktops. Each X300 kit includes virtualization software, a PCI card, and three access devices. The card, which plugs into a standard PCI slot in the shared computer, has three RJ-45 ports that connect via standard network cables (which also supply power) to the access devices. To create a separate workstation, standard peripherals, such as keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, and headphone, hook up to each access device.
"Once we had Lightspeed authenticating users on the host for reporting and the Lightspeed Security Agent providing desktop AV, they were thrilled," says Cayo of the science department staff. Cayo is thrilled because each NComputing host represents an upgrade savings of about $2,500. "We're currently in the process of renovating our high school and could place up to ten more NComputing hosts this summer."
In fact, the deployment has been so successful, Cayo says the district's replacement cycle will be revised so that over the next year instead of replacing computers in lab or group settings, NComputing solutions will be deployed.
"Lightspeed Systems was absolutely part of our decision to use NComputing. We were already using its anti-virus protection, content filtering, and email archiving. Learning how well it worked with NComputing made the move easy," comments Cayo. "As we re-visit more labs, we will be looking to use NComputing and Lightspeed more because it saves us lots of money by extending the life of our desktops."