Govt of Andhra Pradesh : Shared Computing Deployment in Schools

A low power desktop sharing solution that provides computing access to 5,000 schools in Andhra

Monday, June 01, 2009

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The largest state in southern India with a population of around 70 million people, had an ambitious plan to bring computer access into the government schools. Battling shoestring government budgets, unreliable access to power in remote locations where the schools are situated, cost of UPS systems and non-availability of petrol to power generators, the government zeroed in on NComputing solutions that utilizes 1 watt of power and hence, low cost, low power systems.

According to the Andhra government, another big challenge for the deployment besides scale, power and cost issues was that it is a complex project that involves multiple suppliers like system integrators, OEMs and software providers. NComputing and all service providers involved, like NIIT, Educomp, Everonn, and IEG, along with OEM vendors like HP, HCL, and Acer and software vendor Microsoft had to coordinate their efforts and work jointly as teams to collaborate with the government. Given the extremely limited funding, the government of Andhra Pradesh sought the most cost-effective way to provide computing access to 5,000 of its schools. The overall cost of the project was around 300 crores for 5 years; approx 20% was saved by deploying the NComputing solution.

This solution consists of virtualization software that enables a single PC to be shared by many users. Each user's monitor, keyboard, and mouse are connected to a very small and highly reliable NComputing access device, which is then connected to the shared PC. NComputing access devices and software can allow as many as 11(in X series) or 30 (in L series) users to access the capability of one PC, thus bringing down the cost of infrastructure, installation, and maintenance.

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