Case Studies – Hyper-V in Education

Indiana University

University Improves Service Availability, Reduces IT Workload with Virtualization

Indiana University is one of the largest state university systems in the United States, with nine campuses, 100,000 students, 7,000 faculty members, and 11,000 staff members. The university’s Auxiliary Information Technology (AIT) department had a hard time keeping up with the server growth needed to support services such as dining halls and residence centers. It also wanted to eliminate server failures that interrupted services and revenue flow. AIT turned to server virtualization using Windows Server® 2008 with Hyper-V™ and the Microsoft® System Center family of management tools. The department has whittled its physical servers from 150 to 32, has trimmed server deployment time by 90 percent, and can deliver higher availability and meet new service requests faster. The department is also saving U.S.$85,000 annually in hardware costs.

Kentucky Department of Education

Educators Aim to Improve Education, Trim Servers by 60 Percent using Virtualization

The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) wanted to streamline data center and administration costs so it could direct more resources to new educational services. It also wanted to improve server redundancy for higher availability of teaching applications. As a cost-effective way to achieve these goals, KDE has embraced server virtualization using the Windows Server® 2008 operating system with Hyper-V™ technology. Using Hyper-V, KDE plans to reduce its centralized physical server holdings by 60 percent by 2010. Fewer servers will reduce the server management workload. To attain further efficiencies, the IT staff is considering using Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. More importantly, by using virtualization, IT resources will be freed up and available for new services that support better teaching, and will improve server uptime to reduce classroom interruptions.

Volusia County Schools

School District Uses Virtualization to Improve IT and Cut Costs During Budget Crisis

Volusia County Schools serves residents on the east coast of Central Florida. To reduce costs, the school district’s IT department wanted to cut its server acquisition rate and consolidate existing servers—while continuing efforts to improve the quality of education. The department used the Windows Server® 2008 Enterprise operating system with Hyper-V™ virtualization technology to consolidate 70 servers to 6, a 90 percent reduction. It also uses Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 for easier server management. With Hyper-V, the district centralized its servers and expects to reduce server acquisition by about 80 percent annually. Most importantly, the IT department improved business continuity and its ability to deliver new applications to students and staff in less time, at a fraction of the cost it took to deploy them on dedicated physical servers.

Highline Public Schools

School District Improves Teaching Support with Integrated Technology Management

Highline Public Schools, south of Seattle, Washington, had big plans for making better use of technology to enhance teaching and learning—but technology disarray stood in the way. The IT staff needed to standardize district computers and implement tools for monitoring and managing technology before it could move forward with new teaching aids. With bond funding, Highline upgraded its computers and deployed Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to automatically deploy software and is configuring Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 to remotely monitor and manage servers. With standardized technology in classrooms, teachers are better able to enhance teaching with technology. The results include more time for the IT staff to help teachers with technology needs and the ability to detect and remove unauthorized software from its network.

University of Canberra

Virtualization Halves Management Effort for Campus Technology Support

Established in 1968 the University of Canberra delivers education to approximately 10,000 students in a technology-leading environment. However, the university’s IT department was constrained by the effort required to maintain network security and the time it took to commission new servers and maintain its existing large server environment. IT staff did not have the resources to explore or implement new technology services that the university wanted to retain premium technology support for its teaching. In 2008, the university installed Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008. As a result, servers could be configured faster, and firewalls were easier to install and were more effective. In addition, by utilising Hyper-V virtualisation functionality, the university drastically reduced its server hardware requirements and server environment maintenance needs.

University Claude Bernard Lyon 1

University Improves Security and Access to Information for Campus Community

The University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in France wanted to improve access to applications for students and employees while strengthening security. To meet these goals, the university is implementing a solution based on Windows Server® 2008. Users will be able to more easily connect to multiple applications while on campus and from remote locations through single sign on and Terminal Services. Network Access Protection will help ensure the health of their computers and the network. In addition, better management and deployment tools are expected to improve the productivity of IT administrators, who will have more flexibility and control in managing the infrastructure. Finally, the university expects to improve performance and availability through server virtualization and support for 64-bit technology.