Educational institutions worldwide are increasingly turning to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to enable their students to connect securely to hosted curricula and examinations.
The University of Stellenbosch has deployed a centrally-administered VDI that it believes could tackle next-generation Internet-based learning techniques for its mobile and social student base.
The move gives the university a VDI solution capable of running 1 000 Windows 7 virtual machines, servicing 8 000 students.
VDI levels the playing field and makes all devices - whether university-owned or BYOD - equal when it comes to accessing information, the varsity says.
The university has expanded its VDI by deploying the first TintriVMStore T540 unit in an academic environment on the continent, in partnership with Tintri distributor, Networks Unlimited.
Jan Louw, a manager at the university, explains that, with thousands of students logging on and off simultaneously during breaks, the IT environment was under tremendous pressure. With TintriVMstore, the university can now easily and cost-effectively support hundreds of virtual machines.
"This implementation allows us to provide Windows 7 to thin clients on campus across various buildings and academic disciplines, while saving electricity and reducing endpoint device dependencies," explains Louw.
He says custom and standardised desktops can also be delivered to students and personnel on demand and literally in seconds, without the need for extensive IT personnel to configure and maintain individual computers. "Most importantly, it provides access to specialised applications for students, lecturers and researchers in a truly flexible way."
Claudio Polla, regional manager for sub-Saharan Africa at Tintri, adds: "The advantages of VDI are clear - it promises much for enterprises looking to deliver secure, cost-effective remote access to desktops and applications.
"It can lower the cost of connecting clients to desktop and mobile devices, make desktop maintenance easier and improve the overall IT performance."
Market research firm Frost & Sullivan believes VDI lessens IT management burdens. It explains that, rather than managing dispersed hardware and its individually assigned desktops (operating system, applications, profiles and files), IT-standardised virtual desktops are managed centrally and hosted in one or more data centres.
Instead of provisioning and managing individual client devices, IT focuses more on managing the desktop-hosting environment and the virtual desktops, it adds.
The research firm also notes that VDI reduces data loss risk. With the virtual desktops hosted in IT-controlled environments, and only pixels of the virtual desktops appearing on client devices, the surface exposure of data loss is less than with traditional desktops where the data resides in the client hardware, it states.
Also, with VDI, the cost of a lost or stolen laptop, tablet or smartphone is limited to the replacement cost of the device and the end-user's lost productivity until a suitable client device becomes available, it explains.
According to Frost & Sullivan, VDI also supports prevailing consumerisation IT trends. It points out that considering the desktop in server-hosted VDI is similar to an app, albeit a super-sized app. The common tap-to-use app motion from any device, including end-users' own devices, over any network, is supported.
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