June 2008 — News
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Case Study: Freedom Area School District's Virtualized Back-up Plan
My small but dedicated technical staff evaluated each product on a number of different levels. For example, one person would test the time it takes to make an image using each product while another would test mass deployment using each product. I also did some test backups using a 1 TB network hard drive made by Buffalo Technology, called the Devastation. (We deployed one in every building in the district.) Once the tests were completed, we would then all come back together and compare our findings.
Budgetary Considerations
We are constantly looking for ways to stretch a dollar. As an example, the school system received a "Classroom of the Future" grant from the State of Pennsylvania. We used Acronis Snap Deploy to image more than 600 new laptops that were purchased with grant funds. The grant also allowed us to add a technology coach who helps out with break-fix jobs, but because of the ease and speed at which we can deploy and restore images, we can spend more time helping integrate the technology into the curriculum and helping educate teachers than worrying about system deployments.
With regard to our backup project, there had to be a compelling cost-benefit equation.
First, I met with our business manger and the superintendent to see if there was enough money in the budget. We have $100,000 per year to spend on new hardware, another $100,000 for things like software upgrades and licensing, and extra money set aside for unexpected developments, such as crashes.
Next, we went to the school board to explain what we were hoping to accomplish with the new products. The case for adopting a new image-based backup solution was readily apparent. The board approved and the purchase order was cut.
Results
We wanted time savings, and we got it. First, we quickly installed the new Acronis software. It was not long after this that our efforts started to pay dividends. When our e-mail server crashed, we restored the system and got back up and running much faster because we didn't have to reinstall the server and all its updates, as well as the backup.
We also saw significant improvement in the response time of the IT staff. We can re-image any computers experiencing problems much faster, which allows us to reach more users in a shorter period of time. Our entire staff is equipped with bootable CDs and DVDs to give to the experienced users. This puts more power into the hands of teachers and non-IT personnel and so frees up the IT staff to move on and address the issues other users were having.
There was one glitch in the system that we set up, which involved our existing network infrastructure. In some cases it was necessary to separate out the imaging equipment from the rest of the network while we were imaging because of network congestion.
Technology Should Advance the Educational Process
When I was hired here, I hoped to spend time educating teachers and students on how to use technology effectively.
