With a managed print services solution and a virtual desktop deployment from Ricoh, an IT services company, the Hopwood Hall College has delivered an approximated cost savings of about £500,000. The college has 650 employees and handles almost 4,000 students, they noticed that they have to seek solutions to replace its antique IT equipments and it includes some old desktops which are over 10 years older and in some cases as the students uses it it took up to 30 minutes before they can log-in to it.
The director of technology and innovation at the college, Simon Evans outlined a plan to deliver fast and easy access to all data, applications and communication services that their students needed to sustain their studies. In the summer of 2009, to utilized 200 thin-client personal computers in the college’s two renovated learning resource centers, Evans started with a pilot project.
To expand the pilot to the 1,000 personal computers that the college subsequently disposed, in that point Ricoh was then selected to deliver the support that the college needs. All over the college’s two campus locations, the project includes the establishing of the additional PCs to all departments, apart from that it implements a thin-client virtualization solution within the whole infrastructure.
Moreover with a further committed to a storage area network, it also establishes a new data center with 16 blade servers. The college also sets up a Ricoh managed print service or MPS, it has been a substitute to a collection of printers all around the college that were managed freely by each department. The managed print service consist of an Equitrac print management application and 30 Ricoh multi-function products, and it allows the college to inspect print use correctly, as the students access the printers by the use of their security passes.
The college has noticed an extreme reduction in their energy consumption and also in paper use. The deputy principal of Hopwood Hall College, John Spindler explained that the college had made a large investment in IT within the last three years, completely renewing their IT infrastructure by purchasing over £1 million on the new student personal computers, switches and servers. He added that students really thankful with the new investment as it provides them the access to all of their files and applications at all times wherever they can access to broadband.
Evans implied to cost savings to students in software license fees as an additional advantage, they have many students who need high priced business-class software applications for their courses. However, now they could prevent the cost of having to purchase the software themselves, the virtualization solution also conveys that they can access into it any time and anywhere even they use one of the college personal computers, their own unit, laptop, tablet or even their Smartphones.
REFERENCES:
http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2155011/college-saves-gbp500-virtual-desktop-project
http://stevengeorgia.twittweb.com/college
http://www.nextmags.com/acljohn/elearning-tools-resources-etc.#!http://www.nextmags.com/acljohn/elearning-tools-resources-etc./2012-03-10/college-saves-500-000-with-virtual-desktop-project-27-feb-2012
http://www.keycomputers.co.uk/industry-news/it-cloud-computing/college-saves-thousands-with-desktop-virtualisation/
