Edu-leaders

Pepperdine is a leading university in California with over 8,300 students spread over two campuses in Southern California. Like most institutes of higher education Pepperdine’s IT budget was tight, while demand for on-campus computing continued to grow.

With its current computers nearing end-of-life, Pepperdine recognised that it needed a flexible computing option for administrative, learning lab, library, classroom and public settings.

“Like every university, we had a limited budget. We had to find a computing solution that was affordable, secure, reliable and efficient, and met our varied requirements,” says Thomas Hoover, director of Instructional Technology Support at Pepperdine.

The Right Solution
“We knew that low-cost desktop PCs were still too costly, and took up too much room on already crowded work areas,” says Hoover. “We checked out traditional thin clients, but the prices weren’t competitive, either.” Research led Pepperdine’s IT team to CDW, a leading provider of technology products and services. CDW suggested the NComputing virtual desktop solution. The NComputing solution works because today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of applications only use a small fraction of the computer’s capacity. NComputing’s virtualisation software and hardware tap this unused capacity so that it can be simultaneously shared by multiple users.

Each user’s monitor, keyboard, and mouse connect to the shared PC through a small and very durable NComputing access device.

The access device itself has no CPU, memory, or moving parts — so it’s rugged, durable, and easy to deploy and maintain. By spreading the cost of the shared computer over many users, schools can provide up to four times the number of stations for the same money. After running the numbers, the Pepperdine IT team decided to pilot the NComputing L-series solution in its International Studies and Languages (ISL) School’s computer lab.

“The L230’s built-in microphone and stereo-out ports meant we could support the audio-visual needs of our language labs, and the USB port let students save their work to a flash drive. The L230’s support for widescreens also opened up interesting possibilities for communicating with our students and faculty. Our pilot showed that NComputing would meet our performance requirements.”

Saving Time and Money
“We set up 28 NComputing L230s with flat screens in the language lab connected to three dedicated PCs. The performance is excellent, and we haven’t had any problems,” says Prakash Sharma, Pepperdine’s IT Manager, Graduate Campus Support. “We also mounted the L230s to the back of the new flat-screen monitors in the lab. That made a huge difference in available space for students’ books and papers.”

“If we had outfitted the lab with just low-cost PCs, the hardware costs alone would have been $24,800. With NComputing we did the entire deployment for just $7,100. That’s an incredible savings,” adds Hoover.

Pepperdine soon tested other applications with the solution. “New student orientation is usually a very tough week for us. We offer all new students free configuration and virus scanning for their laptops,” says Hoover. “Setting up and tearing down for this service took hours and hours.”

Lines were usually long, and the students often got aggravated with the wait. We decided to set up 14 NComputing L230s as access stations for the students to use when completing the required forms online. We were able to process 650 students in just four days, with no lines. We figure the deployment saved us at least $8,400 in hardware costs in just this instance. With time and labour savings in set up and tear down, we actually saved thousands more.”

Pepperdine found other innovative ways to leverage the solution. “We hooked up a projector from a flash drive connected to the L230’s USB port, and it worked great,” says Hoover. “That eliminated the need for another laptop— another huge savings. Now we’re looking at putting L230s with a mouse and keyboard in some of our study rooms connected to existing 37-inch LCDs so students can work on their PowerPoint presentations. We’re also using the L230s for digital signage.”

Pepperdine has continued to deploy the solution across its campuses, saving thousands more in hardware costs. “We now only have to maintain three PCs in our ISL lab, instead of 28. Demand for IT support has been dramatically cut. That has freed up our time and budget so we can focus on instructional technologies, a strategic initiative for Pepperdine,” says Hoover. “We definitely plan to expand this deployment into every classroom across the campus.”

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