Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Project

Computer Technology Proposal Summary

The Computer Technology department at Brown College would like to pursue funding for a
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure project. The project has two main goals and six major strategies
that will accomplish these goals:
Goal 1: Increase the number of Computer Technology graduates to meet employer and
community needs.
Strategy 1.1: Expand the Computer Technologys four curriculum concentrations
to dual enrollment course offerings (i.e. high schools, charter schools, private
schools, home schools, and career centers) and the colleges six off-campus
centers.
Strategy 1.2: Expand the number of Computer Technology courses offered in an
online or hybrid format to include courses that have been traditionally taught as
hands-on or lab courses.
Strategy 1.3: Pilot VDI technology in order to help area business and educational
institutions understand the benefits of implementing cost-effective technology.
Strategy 1.4: Share project outcomes with businesses and educational institutions
in the community.
Strategy 1.5: Conduct information webinars or live session seminars for the
community.
Goal 2: Increase the number of students enrolling in Computer Technology as a career
pathway.
Strategy 2.1: Provide increased course flexibility for students enrolling in
computer technology by developing online and hybrid courses.
Strategy 2.2: Expand recruiting methods to include more one-on-one high school
presentations and summer camps.
Rationale for Project:
Brown College seeks to expand its Computer Technology program delivery by utilizing VDI
technology. This technology will allow the computer technology program to be more widely
available and affordable for students. It will also increase the much needed flexibility technical
college students need for taking courses and completing lab assignments.

Brown College will be the first technical college in the state to offer VDI as a desktop solution
giving the Greenwood community a competitive advantage in employing the graduates from this
program.

Rationale for Goals and Strategies:

Goal 1: Increase the number of Computer Technology graduates to meet employer and
community needs.
Strategy 1.1: Expand the Computer Technologys four curriculum concentrations
to dual enrollment course offerings (i.e. high schools, charter schools, private
schools, home schools, and career centers) and the colleges six off-campus
centers.
Strategy 1.2: Expand the number of Computer Technology courses offered in an
online or hybrid format to include courses that have been traditionally taught as
hands-on or lab courses.
Strategy 1.3: Pilot VDI technology in order to help area business and educational
institutions understand the benefits of implementing cost-effective technology.
Strategy 1.4: Share project outcomes with businesses and educational institutions
in the community.
Strategy 1.5: Conduct information webinars or live session seminars for the
community.
Currently computer labs on the Greenwood Campus are required by security to be locked after
class and therefore the computers with the appropriate course software and/or student files are
not accessible for students to practice labs or complete homework.
In order to reduce student confusion pertaining to their data, many students have data and
software scattered across multiple computers on the Brown College campus and their home
computers. This confusion can be eliminated by providing an always available desktop that
includes all of the software required for the student to be successful at Brown College. Students
with high speed internet or a WIFI connection would be able to complete the necessary
assessments and labs anywhere and not just in the Greenwood campus computer labs. They
would be able to save their data to a network drive and reduce student frustration levels as well
as missing data. It will also provide Computer Technology students with a fast, dependable and
consistent desktop environment.
The college currently maintains three computer labs that are assigned to the computer technology
department. Maintenance includes purchasing new personal computers for the students and
instructors and imaging the software on these computers every semester. The personal computers
2

in the labs require to be upgraded every three years due to hardware and software limitations. To
install new computers in a lab requires at least 6 hours of labor from the IT department. Imaging
the three computers labs every semester requires at least 3 hours for each lab for a total of 9 labor
hours from the IT department. Implementing the VDI project would allow for one computer lab
to be upgraded with computers known as thin clients that are less expensive than desktop
computers because they allow for servers to process the majority of the computations and send
the information back to the client computers by the use of the network. This is a remarkable
personnel savings and would allow our stretched IT staff to direct their time toward other
projects.
There are many benefits of the VDI Project:
Images would reside on the server and only require updating as new software becomes
available.
Using virtual software would not require the IT department to visit the labs to image.
They will be accessed as the students log in. Therefore reducing IT labor costs.
Thin clients have a life expectancy of eight years while personal desktop computers are
outdated in three.
Thin clients cost approximately $500 less than personal computers.
Thin clients do not require as much power in watts (Average 70% savings).
USC Upstate recently implemented a VDI solution for several of their departments including the
Computer Science department. Their Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Services
stated USC Upstate is using the virtual desktop services component of this initiative to reduce
the number of computers in student labs that need to be upgraded and replaced annually. In the
traditional student lab environment computers were on a four-year replacement cycle, with
images updated annually, a process which frustrated faculty because it was difficult to add
additional application software during the school year. With the new virtual desktop model,
software can be tested on a virtual test server and then moved to a production server so that all
computers in the lab are updated automatically upon start-up. This saves Client Services
minimal staff an enormous amount of time and also allows them to upgrade patches and add
new software in a timely manner. [3]
In reference to the green initiative they later stated: This project capitalized on our efforts
toward sustainability; old desktop PCs are replaced with more energy efficient thin clients
realizing a 70 percent reduction in power consumption, less heat emission and initial hardware
purchase costs reduced 50 percent. [3]
The new cloud technology will allow the necessary program software to run on almost any
computer device and, therefore, will allow students to access and perform critical
assignments/labs from anywhere at any time. This innovative virtual desktop approach will also
allow Brown Colleges Computer Technology department to offer dual enrollment courses to the
local high schools, charter schools, private schools, home schools and/or career centers.

Instructors will be able to teach from a classroom to virtually anywhere there is a high speed
connection and use Brown Colleges virtual desktops for hands-on assessments and assignments.
While the CPT program currently is offering many courses online, there are some courses which
the department is not able to offer online because they are hands-on courses that have
traditionally been taught in the face-to-face format due to lab requirements and assignments.
Employing a virtual desktop infrastructure would allow for these courses to be developed and
offered online.
After year one, project progress and accomplishments will be shared with area business and
educational partners to enable them to begin replicating our cost-effective processes. The college
will share project outcomes with businesses and educational institutions in the community by
inviting them to the campus to tour the data center and the computer labs. One computer lab will
be running thin clients therefore they will be able to see the effortless and graphical interface
of the VDI solution. The Project Team will also offer webinars to all businesses and educational
institutions to evaluate the process.
Goal 2: Increase the number of students enrolling in Computer Technology as a career
pathway.
Strategy 2.1: Provide increased course flexibility for students enrolling in
computer technology by developing online and hybrid courses.
Strategy 2.2: Expand recruiting methods to include more one-on-one high school
presentations and summer camps.
Creating a virtual desktop infrastructure using current remote access and virtualization
technologies to deliver classes to students lacking a means to travel to the Greenwood Campus
will allow students in all of Brown Colleges rural seven-county region an opportunity to obtain
a 2-year computer degree with the knowledge base needed for employment.
Scottsdale Community College in Scottsdale Arizona recently implemented a similar project.
They write We wanted to make our education resources more widely available and affordable
for all types of students, said Dustin Fennell, Chief Information Officer. Many students were
struggling to afford software required for our courses, or a particular type of computer needed
to run that software. The alternative meant having to come on campus to use one of our PCs,
which was not only inconvenient for students but also hampered our efforts to expand enrollment
with non-traditional learners such as working adults and people who wanted to take online
courses. [1]
Scottsdale has a YouTube video demonstration that can be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dI73xsX1VA[3]

In reference to course flexibility, USC Upstate also states Another component of this project is
virtualization. This software allows students to run departmental applications on their personal
computers, no matter what platform or operating system they have. Instead of going to computer
labs to work on specialized software, students will have the ability to work from their dorm
rooms or homes via the Internet. [3]
Project Plan
The college will implement the project over a two year period.
During the first year we will:

Install server hardware and software

Upgrade a computer lab with thin clients
Contract services for student accounts to be automated with Banner
Configure images
Develop and pilot two online courses
Pilot the project

During the second year we will:

Develop and pilot three online courses

Re-evaluate the project
Make necessary changes to policy and procedures
Student surveys of the project

Project Management Team

The Project Management Team will report the projects progress every year to the college grants
coordinator, who reports directly to the college institutional officers and provides annual reports
to the college grant review board. The major role of the Project Management Team will be to
review the progress of the grant and to make recommendations for improvements and
adjustments based on evaluation data, implementation, and feedback. They will monitor all of
the activities of the project to assure that they are fully supportive of the project goals and
objectives.
The participants on the management team include:

Department Chair Computer Technology

Faculty Member Computer Technology

Assistant Vice President, Instructional Technology

Local Industry representative

Improvement:
The office of Institutional Effectiveness will compile data on program effectiveness, enrollment,
persistence, retention, graduation, and placement rates.
Sustainability
The college pledges on-going support of the VDI needs of the computer technology program.
References:
[1] http://www.citrix.com/English/aboutCitrix/caseStudies/caseStudy.asp?storyID=1855142
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dI73xsX1VA
[3] Jeanne Skul, personal communication, March 2011,
http://www.uscupstate.edu/press/article.aspx?id=29800 (link is dead. Was an
article about their implementation of VDI)

Budget
Computer Technology Budget Data
Personnel
Item

Description

Faculty support

Curriculum Development

Faculty support

Curriculum Development

Faculty support

Curriculum Development

Faculty support

Curriculum Development

Faculty support

Curriculum Development

Personnel Subtotal

Yr1

Yr2

$
3,500.00
$
3,500.00

$
$
-

Total
$
3,500.00
$
3,500.00

$
3,500.00
$
3,500.00
$
3,500.00

$
3,500.00
$
3,500.00
$
3,500.00

$
7,000.00

$
10,500.00

$
17,500.00

$
1,960.00

$
2,940.00

$
4,900.00

$
1,960.00

$
2,940.00

$
4,900.00

$
10,000.00

$
40,000.00

Fringe Benefits
Fringe Costs @ 28%
Program Personnel
Fringe Subtotal

Equipment
Dell Poweredge M610 Blade
Server

Require (4) @ $ 10,000 ea.

$
30,000.00

VDI Software

(100) Licenses

$
16,000.00

$
16,000.00

Disk Storage

Equal Logic

$
50,000.00

$
50,000.00

CISCO 3130 Switches

Requires (2) @ $ 7500 ea.

$
15,000.00

$
15,000.00

ISCSI Switches

Requires (2) @ $ 5,000 ea.

$
10,000.00

$
10,000.00

Dell Chassis

M1000e

$
10,000.00

$
10,000.00

UPS

$
7,000.00

$
7,000.00

Thin Client Lab 208F

$
12,000.00

$
12,000.00

Network Upgrades

$
25,000.00

$
25,000.00

Equipment Subtotal

$
175,000.00

$
10,000.00

$
185,000.00

Other Direct Costs

Implementation of project

Internal & external resources

$
15,000.00

$
15,000.00

Other Subtotal

$
15,000.00

$
-

$
15,000.00

Total Direct Costs

$
198,960.00

$
23,440.00

$
222,400.00