Danville School District

Success Story

Danville School District wanted to provide computer access to all its students, but faced prohibitive hardware, software and infrastructure costs. With the Multiplied SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop strategy, the district reduced its hardware and software costs by more than 50 percent, while improving its computer-to-student ratio.

Overview

Danville School District is part of one of the biggest school district units in the state of Illinois with 6,500 students and more than 700 teachers and staff. The district includes 11 schools.

Challenge

Providing technology to students is a key priority for Danville School District, as the majority of its students lack computers at home. With only a few computer labs in its middle schools, many students were entering high school without needed computer skills.

To upgrade its existing desktops, the district faced prohibitive hardware and software licensing costs. Many of the district's old buildings also lack the necessary infrastructure for new technology. Installing proper wiring and network switches in classrooms, computer labs and libraries was proving cumbersome and costly. The district needed to find a way to increase computer access for its students, without increasing its hardware, software and infrastructure costs.

Novell solution

"We estimated that upgrading our desktops to Microsoft Windows Vista would require replacing more than 95 percent of our PCs, as well as an additional $160,000 in licensing costs. We had been looking at Linux for years and the Multiplied SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop bundle really addressed all our needs."

Christel Powell
Manager of Information Systems
Danville School District 118

After consulting with Omni Technology Solutions, Danville School District selected the certified Multiplied SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop hardware bundle from R Cubed Technologies, an Illinois-based, white-box PC maker. R Cubed partnered with Omni to deliver an 8-user bundle for Danville's middle school classrooms.

"We estimated that upgrading our desktops to Microsoft* Windows Vista* would require replacing more than 95 percent of our PCs, as well as an additional $160,000 in licensing costs," said Christel Powell, manager of Information Systems for Danville School District 118. "We had been looking at Linux for years and the Multiplied SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop bundle really addressed all our needs."

Danville's bundle includes an Intel-based PC, 8 monitors, 8 USB keyboards and mice, 8 audio headsets and a USB hub. Students use the Novell Client™ for Linux to log in to the network and access a SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop complete with the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, Novell® GroupWise®, Firefox*, multimedia applications and a variety of Linux* education applications.

"Our students are absolutely thrilled with the new machines and were off and running in no time," said Powell. "They can now access the Internet, write a paper or conduct research in their language arts classrooms, rather than a computer lab. We can already see the difference by providing them with daily access to computers."

With the Linux Desktop Multiplier, powered by Userful, up to 10 students can work at the same time using a single PC with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. As a result, the district has reduced the hardware, maintenance, electricity and infrastructure costs for 85 percent of its physical machines.

"Our Multiplied SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktops act like thin-client terminals, but they deliver better performance at even lower costs," said Powell. "Our Linux desktops are so stable that we spend maybe an hour a week maintaining them. We had a virus attack recently that required days of troubleshooting on our Windows* machines, but our Linux machines were unaffected."

With a Linux environment, the district can take advantage of open source applications and management tools. The district can access online curriculum for its teachers, as well as a host of Linux education applications for its students - all without straining its software budget.

"With access to software from the open source community, we can go out every day and find something new," said Powell. "If something goes wrong, we also have much faster access to support and can often get a patch overnight."

R Cubed implemented the Multiplied SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop solution and provided introductory training for the district's IT staff.

"Omni and R Cubed have been perfect partners for us," said Powell. "They are Linux experts and we could not have done it without them. We have been able to implement a Linux desktop solution that has exceeded our expectations."

Results

"Without SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and the Linux Desktop Multiplier, there is no way we could have put this many desktops in our classrooms. Now we can stretch our limited IT budget to provide better computer access for our students in the district."

Christel Powell
Manager of Information Systems
Danville School District 118

Omni's Multiplied SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop strategy has allowed Danville School District to give computer access to more students on a daily basis, and to improve its computer-to-student ratio. With computers in middle school classrooms, students not only get an integrated learning environment, but also better prepare themselves to enter high school.

The Multiplied Linux desktop solution has helped the district reduce its hardware and software costs by more than 50 percent in addition to saving thousands of dollars in infrastructure upgrades to old buildings. With fewer physical PCs, the district has also reduced its electricity costs by 62 percent.

"Without SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and the Linux Desktop Multiplier, there is no way we could have put this many desktops in our classrooms," said Powell. "Now we can stretch our limited IT budget to provide better computer access for our students in the district."