Virtual desktops much sought in college labs

FORT LAUDERDALE, USA: A recent survey conducted by Citrix Systems, Inc. revealed that virtual desktop delivery interests higher education information technology (IT) professionals looking for ways to optimise computer lab.

The survey, sponsored by Citrix Systems, was administered last month during the annual EDUCAUSE conference held in Orlando, Florida.

Seventy-six percent of 200 higher education IT professionals indicated an interest in adding virtual desktop delivery to their institution’s virtualisation profile.

While more than half of the Citrix survey respondents already have a server virtualisation and provisioning solution in place, desktop delivery appears to have a place in the future of higher education IT.

David Podwojski, director of government, education and health for Citrix Systems, said: “There is clearly a strong interest in virtual desktop delivery for colleges and universities. Looking ahead to 2009 and beyond, desktop virtualisation is poised to play a starring role on the higher education stage.”

The survey also revealed that higher education IT departments recognise virtualisation as a solution that can address top concerns about existing computer labs. Respondents indicated that a virtual computer lab could:

* Provide easy delivery of semester-based instructional applications and resources (67 percent);
* Reduce costs by eliminating the need to maintain the physical lab and upgrade equipment (62 percent); and
* Free IT personnel to work on other projects (58 percent).

In addition, Citrix uncovered a clear competitive advantage component to virtualisation in higher education. More than 67 percent of survey respondents indicated that a virtualisation-enabled reduction in IT costs would make the institution more competitive.

Secure student access to instructional tools from any end device, any time and anywhere, came in a close second (65 percent) in terms of competitive advantages.

“We conducted this survey as part of our ongoing commitment to improving industry’s grasp of the challenges faced by today’s higher education IT professionals, and there were some real gems uncovered in this research,” said Podwojski.

“We’re looking forward to learning more as we bring Citrix virtualisation solutions – end-to-end, from the server to the desktop – to the higher education community.”

Source: WebWire