success story

schools improve reliability, cut costs with hp thin client solution
standardizing, streamlining and centralizing were among the main advantages we saw by moving toward the compaq evo thin client t20 on hp proliant servers. we are fully committed to this solution. ray reitz, chief technology ofcer
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Public School system serves more than 10,000 K-12 students with two high schools, four middle schools and eight elementary schools. Located near the main campus of the University of North Carolina and the Research Triangle Park, the school district is recognized among the highest achievers in the U.S. To help maintain that elite status, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Public Schools knew it needed to create a high-achieving computing infrastructure accessible and efcient without busting budgetary constraints.
When we saw the thin client model demonstrated, it fell in line with all of our goals, Reitz says. An overriding determinant was nding a system for students and teachers to connect to their work and applications from home. With the addition of Citrix Systems server application software, we were able to provide that linkage. Connecting to the districts server farm through an Internet Service Provider, faculty and students enjoy the same desktop functionality available at the schools, with exact replication of les and available applications. Each users les are password protected, and the data are backed up every night. Its very secure and we stress that to increase the comfort factor with our students and teachers, Reitz says. From a two-school pilot program begun in late 2001, the districts thin client rollout currently encompasses all of its secondary schools two high schools and four middle schools as well as an elementary school and remote administrative ofces. Approximately 220 Compaq Evo T20 thin clients are in use. More than 1,000 thin clients and legacy computers are connected to more than 40 HP ProLiant DL360 servers for applications and 10 HP Proliant DL370 servers for data storage. The district has also standardized on HP LaserJet printers, and relies on local HP authorized service partner 4Front Systems to help keep things running smoothly. We have 15 people on the districts technical staff and about 4,000 computers, Reitz notes. If you go by the industry standard of 50 to 75 workstations per technician, wed require 40 or more technicians. But its difcult to justify additional stafng in the current economic climate, so our approach was to address what was causing this great need for tech support. And we knew about the reliability of the ProLiant servers and that they would run for months and months without any downtime.

industry

education

challenge

streamline and standardize school districts IT infrastructure to increase availability and access at reduced cost

solution

compaq Evo Thin Client T20 running on HP ProLiant DL360 servers, with server application software from Citrix Systems Inc.
We were looking at ways to increase reliability within the district, standardize applications and desktop congurations, and centralize our support and maintenance. We also wanted to reduce the labor needed to support our IT environment, says Ray Reitz, chief technology ofcer, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Public Schools. Unfortunately, the IT environment we had was what I called The Smithsonian Institution of Computing anything from 286s to the latest Pentium, Reitz says. Some of our technicians were supporting buildings with 20 or more computer operating systems and more than 30 models of desktop computers, and it just became very difcult to support that kind of environment.

results

established connectivity between home and school for both teachers and students, enabling increased access to assignments and school resources in a secure environment increased reliability across school districts entire IT platform cost savings through fewer trouble reports and reduced power consumption
To complement and extend its educational leadership, the district chose a technology solution that Reitz believes will bring signicant savings in time and money to the district: thin client computing featuring Compaq Evo T20 thin clients connected to HP ProLiant DL360 servers. Today, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Public Schools is one of a growing number of K-12 school systems in the U.S. to adopt the thin client platform. We have been very satised with the reliability of our server technology and wanted to continue with that platform. The ProLiant servers have a proven track record and are very scalable. Reitz says. A conference on technology and learning that coincided with the districts strategic technology planning effort convinced Reitz and others to focus on solutions that were simple, reliable and supportable.

were impressed, Reitz says. We are fully committed to this solution and pushing the envelope on what you can do within the thin client environment. Establishing home connectivity and the capability to share resources were top priorities for the district as it evaluated the thin client platform, and Reitz says theyve accomplished those goals while also achieving the highest-available levels of reliability and access. There have been no signicant issues on the hardware congurations they have been rocksolid, Reitz says. The thin client platform has provided a new level of reliability for the school environment.
For faculty, students and administrators used to traditional desktop computers, the small size and sleekness of the Evo thin client were eye openers. When we showed them all the Evo can do, people
When I rst came here, people talked about having to reboot servers every couple of days it was just accepted, Reitz says. From my experience in other computing environments and collaboration with HP in the past, I knew it was possible to achieve 99.9 percent reliability on servers the NASDAQ system doesnt need to be rebooted every week. The HP ProLiant DL360 and DL370 servers are certainly meeting that level and with the T20 thin clients having no moving parts, theres just not much that can go wrong. Even an ice storm that paralyzed much of the region for more than a week didnt phase the HP ProLiant servers. There was no power, and most schools were closed for several days, Reitz says. Our servers are congured to smoothly shut down when power is lost, and as soon as the power came back, so did the servers. Power came back on a Saturday, and when we came in on Sunday all of the servers were back up and ready for students.
latest technology. Applications and storage, all at the server level, can be upgraded just as easily by the network administrator. Students now have better access, at school or at home, and this has improved their knowledge base and the types of projects they can do, Herring says.
customer at a glance: organization:
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Public Schools

location:

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

employees: teachers and

administrators for two high schools, four middle schools and eight elementary schools that serve more than 10,000 students

cost cutters

The anticipated cost savings are also being realized, even in the early stages of deployment. By mid-year it was already very clear to us that there were fewer trouble tickets coming from the thin client schools compared with the schools that had fully loaded workstations, Reitz says. There was a big reduction in what can go wrong with the individual workstations, and our techs are able to solve most of the issues at the server level. Sometimes they can solve issues remotely and not even have to go to the school, which is very efcient, he says. Its clear the thin client solution is reducing our support costs and increasing the uptime of the applications for our users. The Compaq Evo Thin Client T20 also makes the grade when it comes to power consumption. A study demonstrating that thin clients require just 25 percent of the power of a fully loaded desktop PC was a factor in deploying the units at the districts new Smith Middle School an environmentally friendly facility complete with solar lighting and water reclamation systems. Increased efciency and decreased support and power requirements are extremely important to us, Reitz says. For more information on how working with Hewlett-Packard can benet you, contact your local HP service representative, or visit us through the Internet at our World Wide Web address: http://www.hp.com

telephone: 919.967.8211 URL: http://www.chccs.k12.nc.us technology vision: to be a national leader using technology to enrich students learning and achievement, enhance teachers prociency and effectiveness, and increase organizational efciency. solution details
220 Compaq Evo Thin Client T20 units 40 HP ProLiant DL360 servers 10 HP ProLiant ML370 servers HP authorized service provider Citrix Systems server application software

teachers see advantages

That level of reliability and availability is helping the districts teachers do their jobs better, too. Im able to do a lot of work from home as well as at school and thats been very advantageous, says Paulette Scott, a Smith Middle School social studies teacher. Space-wise, the thin clients are very convenient because they dont take up a lot of room in the classroom, so students can easily write as well as use their keyboards, says Berkeley Gadbaw, a Smith Middle School science teacher. The advantage of the system is that all of the students have their own folder. As a teacher I am able to access those folders in case I need to check on a project or edit something, says Mary Ann Maney, a Smith Middle School math teacher. If I could set up all of my teaching from a computer I would probably do that, because its fun for them and its fun for me. With the old computers, the technology was never up to date, says Amy Herring, a Culbreth Middle School social studies teacher. With Evo thin clients, free rmware upgrades for the life of the device enable IT managers to keep up with the
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