Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


U Tennessee at Martin Looks To Cut IT Costs with Desktop Virtualization

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 01/04/11

The University of Tennessee at Martin has started rolling out desktop virtualization to provide its 8,000 students and staff members access to their desktops, files, and network resources from multiple locations and computing devices on campus. The university began the initiative, which was first surfaced in a 2005 technology plan, by deploying Citrix XenDesktop to deliver Windows desktops and applications on 45 computers in three campus locations. XenDesktop allows IT to bundle the operating system, applications, and user profiles, store them centrally, and then deliver a specific desktop image to a user.

Citrix said the university would next implement the software on 900 computers in labs and department offices.

Eventually, U Tennessee Martin intends to provide virtual applications and desktops to all university- and student-owned personal devices. It will offer users up to 30 applications through XenApp, as an integrated feature of XenDesktop. XenApp allows the enterprise to store an application in a central location and deliver it to the user on request in a form optimized for the user device.

In some cases the university will only make the latest software available through the virtual environment. For example, the university is only delivering Office 2010 on lab computers through the Citrix environment.

"We want to make applications available to students in the way they want to access them--in university housing, off campus, via mobile phones, however and wherever they want. We plan to offer them everything that Citrix delivers," said Shannon Burgin, university CIO.

The university said the full deployment was expected to lower desktop computing costs by 40 percent through simplified centralized management and a reduced hardware refresh rate.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • digital data protection and cyber security

    White House Launches New AI Security Framework

    President Donald Trump has issued a new executive order aimed at maintaining United States AI leadership while addressing the security risks posed by increasingly powerful AI systems.

  • woman

    Microsoft Discovery Platform Brings Agentic AI to Scientific Research

    Microsoft has moved its Discovery platform into general availability, calling the service a production-ready environment for scientists and researchers that want to apply AI agents.

  • A glowing digital brain with neural connections and light trails

    AI Giants Warn It May Be Time to Slow Down

    For years, leaders in the artificial intelligence industry have warned that increasingly capable AI systems could eventually become dangerous, all the while continuing to race to build them. Now, their sentiments have changed.

  • CIS Sandbox Tutor Eli Blouin at Bentley University imagines a future technology learning partner that supports curiosity, critical thinking, feedback, and personalized learning.

    Student Voices: Technology as a Future Learning Partner

    A data analytics and marketing major at Bentley University and a distinguished lecturer at the university explore the future of "technology learning partners" — technologies that participate in the learning process by asking questions and giving feedback, not just information search results.