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Virtual client solution for education from IBM
Executive summary Business view Technical details
The goal
Achieve access and flexibility across campus
When it comes to desktop computing in academia, flexibility is key. Availability of computers in classrooms, offices, labs, dorm rooms and throughout campus is expected. And students, faculty and staff want to be able to access their own data, securely, from all of these locations. In addition, a wide variety of applications are needed to support diverse courses and projects. The virtual client solution from IBM can provide a more secure, easy to maintain option for addressing these needs.

The advantage
Rely on our leadership in client computing
The virtual client solution from IBM leads the industry for next-generation client computing. We offer:
  • More than 80 years of experience developing solutions for schools and institutions of higher education.
  • A commitment to education that is demonstrated through partnerships with leading industry groups, such as the Consortium for School Networking, EDUCAUSE, Kuali and Sakai, as well as sponsorship of the three National Education Summits.
  • Active involvement in standards-setting bodies for virtualization—this helps ensure that virtualization remains self-contained and hardware agnostic, so you won’t one day find your investment in virtualization suddenly obsolete.

The benefits
The many ways to use a virtualized desktop
The virtual client solution from IBM provides users with remote access to the desktop environment—including functionalities such as print, USB drive support and audio capabilities—through thin client devices placed throughout campus. This can provide many benefits to all types of academic institutions. For example:
  • Students, administrators and educators gain more flexibility with access to their data and the applications they need from a variety of locations across campus, wherever thin clients are placed or taken.
  • Students can store their data from one school year or semester and retrieve it the next, without expending desktop system resources when the information is not in use.
  • Educators can also store course information from semester to semester without using up valuable system resources.
  • A blade can be dedicated to a student with high system resource needs for the duration of a course—then it can be reassigned to a new student who takes the course during the next semester, or it can be distributed among several students or administrators when the course is not in session.
  • Use of thin clients provides added security for hardware—there are no expensive laptops or desktop computers to lose, break or be stolen.
  • Virtual computing can also help protect systems from viruses and other threats by centralizing security management—no need to install security patches on countless computers across campus.

Higher education institutions could utilize a virtual client solution throughout campus, in areas such as:
  • Computer labs
  • Dorm rooms
  • Libraries and study hall
  • Student cafes, dining halls, student centers or other common areas
  • Administrative offices

K-12 schools could utilize a virtual client solution in:
  • Classrooms
  • Administrative offices
  • Libraries
  • Cafeterias

With thin client laptops, higher education and K-12 institutions can provide a mobile option to faculty, students and staff.

The approach
Easy steps to connect
The virtual client solution from IBM runs a fully-functional desktop environment, such as Windows® XP or Linux®, in a turnkey virtualized image. In classrooms, administrative offices and throughout campus, students, educators and administrative staff can easily access the PC features they need without the responsibility for installing security patches or upgrades to applications themselves. With this solution:
  • End users can log on with an integrated password from any virtual client located throughout campus.
  • They are then connected to the operating system, showing their personal configurations and settings, as well as their own data on a security-rich server.
  • When problems arise, or updates to applications or hardware are needed, the IT staff can complete the tasks quickly and easily in the data center, so end users don't have to wait for desk-side support.

The financial advantage
Achieve significant cost reduction through varied methods
With the virtual client solution, IBM can help your school system or academic institution realize a variety of cost savings. Our solution is designed to:
  • Reduce capital cost by sharing hardware resources across multiple students, teachers and administrators and repurposing hardware—the servers that support the virtual desktops by day can run maintenance or computational programs at night.
  • Alleviate the cost of stolen and lost desktop and laptop computers.
  • Limit the introduction of viruses into your systems by moving desktop operating systems and applications into a secure data center.
  • Eliminate the costly client hardware replacement cycles that are traditionally required to keep systems up to date and satisfy student expectations and needs.

Next steps
 
Questions about this solution? Contact an IBM education specialist.