The Yellowknife Education District #1 (YK1) made the same decision 4 years ago and it is a decision that I have to manage and defend on an almost daily basis as the Manager of Information Technology Services. What Lee Stem, the general manager of IT services at TDSB, talks about with cost savings with the current trend of applications moving to the web is right on the mark. Mac computers cost roughly double what an equivalent or even higher level PC costs. Since both platforms can do the same things and with the emergence of web based applications anyway, the hardware is becoming less important every day. Having an internet connection with a computer running a browser is all you need for much of what people need to do.

At YK1 we started to take it even one step further. In one of our schools we set up a lab of PCs running virtual desktops that will cut costs even further and if successful (as it has been so far) we will look to implement it district wide. The virtual desktops will allow us to get away from PCs or Macs in the labs and use dumb terminals when we evergreen our existing labs. It will also allow us to use our existing equipment longer that we currently do. Why? Because all that is needed to run the virtual desktop is a network connection. The computer will boot to a virtual desktop hosted on the server and the students will be given a Windows desktop with all the applications they need.

This will save additional money because computers can be used much longer, and instead of having to update and upgrade operating systems and programs on each computer we just have to create an image and make sure that one image is up to date and in a matter of seconds we can push that out to the server for use in the lab. A student can log off, for example, having just used a Windows Vista desktop and login in again and get a Windows 7 desktop. Absolutely the greatest thing. As an IT department we will just have to make sure a computer turns on and has a network connection; no more problems with software installations or problems.

Another great thing is that our students will be able to access the virtual server from home using a browser (again there is no need for it to be a PC, Mac or even Linux computer specifically) their login using their AD credentials and get the same desktop at home that they get in the school. This allows them to start work or projects at the school and finish them at home without having to worry whether or not they have the same software.

Unfortunately we live in a time of increased cuts to funding in education (but that is a subject for another post) so we are all looking for ways to cut costs whether it is by using free or inexpensive web applications, standardizing to a less expensive platform or using virtual systems. I can say from 4 years of experience that the TDSB made the right decision and are on the road to cutting costs which in the long run will benefit the students.

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