Desktop Virtualization with VMware View reduces IT maintenance cost and complexity while providing schools with the tools needed for teaching critical 21st century skills and improving students’ learning experience
PALO ALTO, Calif.: Helping transform education for the digital age, VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced growing momentum for desktop virtualization in the classroom with VMware View™.
Using desktop virtualization with VMware View, kindergarten through 12th grade students and teachers gain access to enhanced learning resources and digital content on school networks or remotely via the Internet. Additionally, VMware View enables the growing trend of students bringing their own laptop or connected devices to school by providing a secure virtual desktop that is managed and controlled by the school’s IT department. As a result, VMware helps blend technology into school life, from lesson plans to homework, increasing time spent learning 21st century skills versus managing technology.
For school IT administrators, VMware View provides the ability to reduce cost and complexity by enabling them to manage virtual desktops centrally in the datacenter. Applications are installed, upgraded and patched once, then securely delivered over the network to any device, including PCs, Macs, laptops, tablets and thin clients. At the same time, the school’s IT team can eliminate the time previously required to manage and support individual desktop computers, and instead apply precious personnel and budget resources to other important projects.
Center Grove Community School Corporation, Indiana:
Located 20 minutes south of downtown Indianapolis, Center Grove Community School Corporation, the public school district that serves the White River Township, recognized that 21st century students have unique and changing educational needs which often require cutting-edge teaching methods and tools. Center Grove’s Early College program features a 1-to-1 laptop program that leverages VMware View desktop virtualization technology to deliver mobile computing resources to students and teachers.
The Early College virtualization project was so successful; Center Grove’s IT team began to look for ways to expand the program. In addition to purchasing new Dell laptops the district repurposed 460 old desktops as virtual clients, saving the school district $325,000 in additional hardware costs. The desktop lifecycle which used to be four to five years has been extended to as long as seven to eight years with desktop virtualization. As a result of the school’s early success, the district plans to roll out more than 2,400 virtual desktops based on VMware View.
School District of Somerset, Wisconsin:
In its efforts to achieve a 1-to-1 computer-to-student ratio for its 1,650 students and 225 faculty members, the School District of Somerset adopted VMware View to extend the life of its existing desktops and let students safely use their own computers to access school content and applications. In addition, the solution helps the district contain ongoing operational costs and lets students and school administrators stay productive by enabling anytime access to school assignments and applications from any device. They simply launch VMware View and their “school desktop” is delivered to their machine.
Ontario Montclair School District, California:
Located in Southern California, Ontario Montclair School District (OMSD) provides kindergarten through eighth grade education for about 23,000 students. Looking for a more flexible and cost effective way to get computers into the hands of its students, OMSD turned to VMware for a virtual desktop solution with HP mobile thin clients. Using VMware View and VMware ThinApp, OMSD now provides students with district-wide access to applications, such as Rossetta Stone language arts courseware, while allowing the district’s small IT team to retain control and management of more than 2,000 mobile thin clients.