Telfair County Schools Trusts Parallels for Educational Excellence

Giorgio Bonuccelli
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Dallas, Texas, November 4, 2009 – As a rural Georgia school district, Telfair County Schools was faced with the challenge of affording its students the same educational opportunities as other, wealthier school districts, who routinely provided their students with advanced technology offerings. To match the capabilities of peer districts, Telfair chose to deploy a Parallels ApplicationServer solution, along with the Parallels ThinClientServer, to guarantee reliable remote application access to their schools’ computer labs and FTP system. Use of the solution will allow students the use of quality published applications in school computer labs, while providing teachers access to critical files and applications outside the classroom.

David Walker is Telfair County Schools’ Director of Technology, who monitors the technology requirements of the district’s elementary, middle and high school. Due to the district’s small size, up until this year, David has run his department single-handedly, making the search for a straightforward, easy-to-manage connection broker solution a critical pursuit. David first considered using a Citrix solution, claiming that the product was “feature rich, but came with a cost that far outweighed any potential benefit we would receive from the solution.” Wanting to maximize benefits for the district’s students on a fixed IT budget, David began investigating more cost-effective options, eventually settling on a Parallels solution. He states that while he “was impressed with the Citrix features list, Parallels has a great product as well, and was able to meet every requirement we were looking for, at a much lower cost.” As a result, rather than paying additional hardware and licensing costs, he is now saving “well over 50% from our original costs,” significantly more than what was possible using a Citrix solution.

In deploying his Parallels solution, David purchased both the Parallels  ApplicationServer and the Parallels ThinClientServer, to provide effective remote application access while effectively converting his existing desktops to function as thin clients. He chose to install the Parallels ApplicationServer to 12 terminal servers, with a total of 9 Windows 2003, 32-bit and 3 Windows 2008, 64-bit servers. While initially choosing the Virtual Iron virtualization platform, he explains that he is in the process of switching to a VMware platform, specifically considering VSphere 4. Despite changes in virtualization platforms and the number of users serviced, David notes that Parallels’s per-server license model and virtualization platform-independent design ensure that he can service as many users as possible from his Parallels server with no required licensing changes or virtualization platform integration problems. This flexibility has created a “powerful, yet simple solution” that he can “trust completely.”

Apart from providing significant cost savings and improving remote application publishing reliability, David boasts that choosing Parallels provided his district with specific advantages when compared to his original solution. Though he admits that other solutions also provided a broad array of features, David claims a defining advantage of his Parallels solution is the “simple, straightforward way it performs the functions it’s designed to perform.” Speaking to IT professionals in other districts, David became aware of the lengthy process required to complete Citrix installations, noting that to install their solution properly, Telfair would “need a lot more hardware, and the solution would take far more upkeep to maintain.”

David notes that though it’s a feature-rich solution, if he had continued with his original Citrix choice, he “didn’t know that it would’ve done everything we were expecting,” claiming that the simplicity of Parallels solutions “ultimately makes them the better product.” Use of his Parallels solution thus gives David little day-to-day stress in meeting the needs of Telfair’s students. Based on the success of his Parallels experience so far, he explained that this year, he would like to “make applications available to students at home, allowing them to continue to have access to teaching materials after the end of the school day.” He explains that as long as his server can handle additional users, his Parallels ApplicationServer solution can bear the heavier load with ease, making hardware capabilities the only limit to network expansion.

About the Parallels ApplicationServer for Windows Terminal Services

The Parallels ApplicationServer tunnels any Windows application or desktop onto remote computers, including Mac and Linux desktops, without the need to install the application or desktop onto each user’s machine. This provides significant savings on administration and support.

Obtaining the Trial Version

Parallels is offering a 30-day trial version of Parallels ApplicationServer for Windows Terminal Services. After the 30-day trial period, users can still use the 3-connection free version by registering for the 3-connection license key on the Parallels website. Download the trial version today.

About Parallels

Parallels – is a company developing software for the booming server-based computing market. Thin client computing controls skyrocketing PC management costs, centralizes application and desktop management, improves security and performance and allows users to work remotely. The company’s product line includes: Parallels ThinClientServer, Parallels LoadBalancer for Terminal Services/Citrix, Parallels ApplicationServer for Windows Terminal Services and Parallels VirtualDesktopServer. Parallels is a privately-held company with offices in the USA, Germany, Australia, the UK, Cyprus and Malta. Its management team is backed by years of experience in developing and selling network infrastructure software. Parallels is a Microsoft, IBM, VMware and RedHat partner. For more information, visit: http://www.parallels.com/.

About Telfair County Schools

Telfair County Schools will prepare students to be productive members of society by fostering a caring environment with meaningful experiences and high expectations for all. For more information, visit: http://www.telfair.k12.ga.us.

For more information:

Please email Ryan Pope on rp@2x.com

URL: http://www.2x.com/