Wyse Technology has reportedly announced a new virtual client implementation at the Beech Grove City Schools in Indiana.

 

Instead of PCs, the school district in the greater Indianapolis metropolitan area turned to a cloud computing model of server consolidation and virtual clients to improve teacher access to computers and enable students to improve graduation rates.

 

The existing system of Beech Grove delivered the basic educational and administrative support; however, it required too much maintenance. Beech Grove said that it took a staff of seven full-time people just to maintain the system, which comprised a server in each of the district’s six buildings and approximately 1,000 PCs, 200 MacBooks, 250 Apple (News - Alert) iPod touch devices, and 30 laptops.

 

This left no resources available for improving the system or to provide curriculum learning applications for use in the classrooms and labs, and also at the same time the technology needs of the teachers were growing, Beech Grove officials said.

 

After a thorough evaluation, the school found that the only way for the IT group to reduce maintenance spending was to break the cycle of PC replacement. Teresa Kratzer, director of technology at Beech Grove City Schools, assembled a team of 35 staff from all parts of the district, including technology teachers, non-technology teachers, administrators, operations and other staff to find the right solution.

 

In collaboration with Integrity Network Solutions (News - Alert) of Indianapolis, they mapped out a new system with servers consolidated into one data center, faster point-to-point network connections and thin clients from Wyse.

 

Kratzer said that Beech Grove saw cloud computing and adoption of the thin computing model as a way to solve the challenges it faced, while gaining additional benefits.

 

“In addition to meeting our immediate computing needs, our plan for a low-maintenance system helps allay our perennial concern that next years budget might be even tighter,” Kratzer said in a statement. “Our investment in Wyse thin computing will pay dividends for years to come.”

 

Beech Grove City Schools deployed 300 Wyse V10L thin clients throughout the districts schools in addition to creating two new computer labs in the middle school and high school. Integrity Network Solutions conducted the initial set-up.

 

Kratzer said that the Wyse management software improved IT efficiency during deployment and ongoing operation. Four district IT staff and two high school students swapped out more than 200 aging PCs and also set up two new computer labs outfitted with 30 thin clients each. Using Wyse thin clients, students and teachers now access online Web services, student information systems, library programs and assessment testing programs.

 

Noting that technology in schools is all about how to improve the education of the students, Maryam Alexandrian, senior vice president for worldwide sales and channels at Wyse, said it shouldn’t be about maintaining and replacing equipment.