District Administration - September 2007 - (Page 64)

ProblemSolution SUCCESS STORIES FROM DISTRICTS ACROSS THE NATION Networking: Virtualizing Desktops By Kurt O. Dyrli PROBLEM THE COLLIER COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT CCSD OF NAPLES, FLA., one of the largest districts in the country, has information technology on a grand scale, including more than 21,000 computers and 700 servers. Keeping the technology network up-to-date is a large undertaking, and regular maintenance, software updates and bugs could require accessing thousands of machines individually. Additionally, the CCSD Technology help desk had received more than 16,500 calls for assistance every year. Maintaining the district’s computers was expensive, diﬃcult and time-consuming, and administrators needed to ﬁnd a better way to make resource management more eﬃcient. SOLUTION CCSD had built its infrastructure in the standard way that large districts and businesses have for years, installing thousands of computers, each with its own software, hardware, memory and desktop conﬁgurations. The computers ran through a local server, which provided Internet access and data backup. Especially in a school district as huge as CCSD, this ineﬃcient infrastructure made management and updating an overwhelming task. “We were replacing about 7,000 desktops every year, and we had to get it all done during the two months of summer,” says Thomas Petry, director of technology. The district found an answer in an emerging technology for large computer networks that used what are known as “virtual desktops,” where individual computers do not store information locally. Instead, they act as “dummy” terminals (or “thin clients”) connected to a central server bank, which contains desktop conﬁgurations for sometimes up to thousands of machines. The operating system, memory and hard drive, as well as hardware and software programs, are all accessed remotely, so individual desktops are essentially “hollow” and no longer need to be updated or replaced as frequently. “The greatest issue 64 September 2007 we were dealing with was the high cost of maintaining and replacing those desktop PCs,” Petry says. “Now we can simply cycle out the servers, and hold oﬀ on replacing the thin clients for much longer, saving a lot of time and resources.” Various virtual desktop environments were considered, and district administrators selected Hewlett Packard’s new Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with HP BladeSystem servers, DC7600 ultraslim desktops, and VMware ESX virtualization software from HP partner company VMware. Everyday maintenance by IT staﬀ has been revolutionized. Instead of physically accessing individual computers when problems arise, technology personnel can repair or replace a problematic computer conﬁguration remotely. The district esti- The Collier County School District’s virtualized desktops are now accessed remotely from this data center. RESOURCES Hewlett-Packard www.hp.com IBM www.ibm.com Microsoft www.microsoft.com Virtualization information www.virtualization.info Vmware www.vmware.com mates that it can now solve 95 percent of computer problems in this way, and most of these instantaneously, from the help desk. This remote online accessibility also extends to staﬀ members and students, who can access their virtual desktops and saved data from anywhere in the world. District security is also improved signiﬁcantly, as sensitive data are stored on central servers instead of on PCs, laptops, disks or ﬂash drives, which are vulnerable to theft and vandalism. These features mean that virtualization has the potential to revolutionize school district computing. However, the technology is so new that software companies are sorting out such issues as licensing agreements, since VDIs can enable thousands of computers to use a single software program, for example. Software vendors, therefore, have speciﬁc policies regarding virtualization. At this early stage, a VDI may be appropriate for large districts like CCSD, but may not be cost-eﬀective for smaller districts. Based on the many problems these systems solve, it will be interesting to watch VDIs progress. DA Kurt O. Dyrli is a contributing writer. District Administration http://www.hp.com http://www.ibm.com http://www.microsoft.com http://www.virtualization.info http://www.vmware.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - September 2007

Cover
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
District Profile
Administrator Profile
District Buying Power 2007
X-Factor Student Achievement Awards 2007
We've Got Mail
Supporting New Teachers
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem Solution
Computer Literature
Research Corner
Online Edge
Supervisor’s Opinion
Speaking Out
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - September 2007