Universities have a lot to worry about these days when it comes to IT. They have to provide high-availability services to research labs; they have to support and manage crowded student labs, and clean up the mess when undergrads spill Mountain Dew on expensive equipment; they have to protect their networks from hackers and viruses; and they have to do all of this on a limited budget.
In other words, universities have the same problems as businesses: they have to find ways to do more with less.
ClearCube has helped universities in the U.S. and abroad to eliminate asset theft and reduce support costs by 40%. In addition, ClearCube offers a cost-effective grid computing solution for research and modeling.
Jackson State University in Mississippi began using ClearCube blades in 2005. According to Michael Robinson, assistant to the vice president for security and emerging technology at JSU,
“‘Before we implemented ClearCube PC Blades, 10 percent of our computers were down on any given day. This was a pain for both the students and faculty and became a real time-suck for our IT staff, as they were constantly traveling from lab to lab.’” (Grid Today)
A centralized computing solution means centralized maintenance for IT staff, which translates to lower overhead down the line. It can also be a tremendous boon to remote branch campuses, which no longer need dedicated staff to manage them. In turn, these campuses may also suffer less from infrequent equipment-refresh cycles, since their on-site equipment can stay the same while software and service updates are easily rolled out from the data center. This all has far-reaching implications for global education delivery. Pakistani blogger Shirazi writes in Light Within that
“IT has already made seismic impact in distance education. With the advent of computers and the internet, learning is no longer restricted to time and place. Students these days have access to a great amount of relevant information and resources outside the confines of classrooms and auditoriums.”
A remote campus with ClearCube clients could deliver virtually the same quality experience as a traditional on-campus computer lab. This enables universities to extend their reach, while helping students who may not have a home computer to still benefit from quality education.
Thanks for this mention.