Rockhurst University goes lean and green, saving 80% on student labs with thin computing solutions form Wyse.
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Rockhurst University is a comprehensive university that offers more than 50 undergraduate and graduate programs taught by nationally recognized faculty. The Kansas City, Missouri-based institution has been ranked among the top masters universities in the Midwestern United States by U.S. News & World Report, and has several times been singled out by the Carnegie Foundation for its excellence in teaching.
This track record of innovative teaching is matched by a tradition of innovation in IT. Rockhurst University has been ranked among the nation’s top 30 wireless college campuses by Intel. So when the university considered switching from PCs in its student labs to thin-client devices, but could not find any other school that had done so, it was not deterred.
The change-over went smoothly, taking only five weeks, and when students returned from their summer break, they found that all the PCs in the computing labs had been replaced by Wyse V10L thin-client devices. Rockhurst students benefit from the Wyse TCX USB Virtualizer capability to securely plug in their flash drives, so they can use their own data when working on the universitys specialized applications. IT enables students to check out floppy drives and CD ROM drives and connect them to the Wyse-based infrastructure, too, to accommodate other media.
Saving money
Purchasing and implementing a thin-client device costs less in hardware and staff time than purchasing and implementing a PC. Over a twelve-year period, with the lower refresh rate of thin clients, Rockhurst University expects to save $245,000 in hardware. This frees much-needed funds for other IT projects and applications.
The switch to thin clients brought immediate savings, too. We spent a total of $155,000 on all the hardware, software, licensing, and three years of support for all aspects of the system, says Stanclift. For the same number of PCs, over a three year period, Id expect to pay $185,000 for hardware, software, licensing, and three years of support.
Going green
Rockhurst University is committed to conserving natural resources and protecting the environment. Thin clients have a much smaller carbon footprint than PCs: they require less energy and raw material in manufacturing, are shipped in smaller boxes for greater transport efficiency, and have a longer lifespan. Also, because thin clients do not have spinning disks or fans, they use less electricity, reducing the computer labs contribution to Rockhursts power bills by approximately 80% annually.
The Kansas City Star newspaper featured Rockhurst Universitys replacement of PCs with thin clients as a significant green initiative, helping create an even more positive image of the university among students, faculty, staff, and the community.
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JVZoo Product Feed
Mar 13, 2010 at 20:23:10
They do seem like a …
They do seem like a good piece of kit. They would be ideal for playing music or streaming radio on a small screen.
Windows CE though, is it reliable? There are some machines in a local office that seem to run Linux 6 (whatever that”s supposed to mean). I”m more than happy to use Linux. Is it an option?