Technology has moved educational environments far beyond blackboards and wooden desks, into smart classrooms that incorporate the latest IT to facilitate the delivery of knowledge. But managing those in-class computing resources can be as great a challenge as the learning process itself. So when a federal department needed to improve their training facilities, in particular to promote distance learning, they sought a system that would not only take advantage of the latest information technology, but would do so in a way that allowed ease of operation.

At its core, the department's initiative sought to improve existing regional training classrooms in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, as well as add additional classrooms that would be strategically located throughout the continental United States. This required a technology solution that could easily be managed and maintained, while providing the department with the ability to build upon the existing technology investments in place. Desktop virtualization allowed the department to replace over a hundred PC workstations in three locations with energy-efficient thin clients. Furthermore, thin clients lowered IT administration costs because there’s less patching and management required for these devices.

The goal was not only to provide employees with high-end learning resources, but also to gain efficiencies in the delivery of those resources, with greater control over administration and management of desktop and server images for the thin clients in the classroom. Also central to the plan was the implementation of a video teleconferencing system and educator that connects remote facilities. This allows the live broadcast of an instructor in one location to multiple locations throughout the United States.

The legacy configuration in each of the classrooms required each station to have a dedicated keyboard, video, and mouse connected to a KVM switch that connected to an individual server in the data center. This gave the student full use of that server and any applications installed on it. The limitation of this configuration is that each student only had access to one server at any given time. In addition, it required space, power, and cooling in the data center and IT spent a considerable amount of time when each of the servers needed a new operating system. By using desktop virtualization technologies, the department could support multiple clients with just a few servers in the data center, thus eliminating the 1:1 mapping of user to server formally employed. The result would be a significant savings on hardware, software, and maintenance costs. Templates were created for each of the server OS images allowing IT to deploy new virtual machines in minutes versus hours.

To create the new system, the department turned to GTSI, a leading government systems integrator, who would approach the project through the development and implementation of a technology lifecycle management strategy. By proactively planning for every phase of the IT resources, from acquisition through disposal and refresh, the GTSI approach would give the department greater control over current and future costs, allowing it to quantify and maximize the return on investment for the supporting infrastructure of its regional training facilities. Moreover, the solution could be implemented with a minimum amount of disruption to ongoing classroom training.

Ultimately, the GTSI solution encompassed the design and implementation of a virtual infrastructure that included up to 17 clustered servers, a management server, and up to 150 thin clients and LCDs spread across 4 classrooms, together with optimization and consolidation plans for the cabling, power, conduits, closets, closet switches, and more.

Project managers for GTSI used a PDIO methodology in pursuing the initiative, beginning with a planning phase that included the completion of all necessary network discovery and documentation, definition of project roles and responsibilities, and the development of a high-level project plan with which to move forward. In the design phase, the GTSI team engaged the department’s managers in a bi-directional dialogue that informed every one of the details particular to the environment that would be critical to the project's success. A proof of concept validated the design in a live environment and, once established, implementation of the technologies began. Uniquely, GTSI's Integration Center offered a certified environment for complex staging and deployment, allowing the rapid testing and integration of the IT equipment as needed. In many instances, greater efficiencies accrue from shipping equipment to GTSI’s centralized location, to rack and test the equipment prior to shipment to the department.

GTSI-led training facilitated a smooth hand-off, and ongoing support services provided continuing assurance that, once in operation, any additional infrastructure needs could be quickly identified.

With the phased approach of technology lifecycle management, GTSI ensured the desktop virtualization solution could be deployed in a timely and cost-effective manner, from cradle to grave, with the ability for technology refresh. What the department acquired was not only a new IT infrastructure that enhanced its local and distance training program, but a longer-term plan that could successfully address its IT training needs today and tomorrow.