New College Leicester Combines Green Technology with Educational Benefits

New College, Leicester is a secondary school with over 800 pupils.  They have 3 dedicated ICT suites with 30 seats in each room.  In addition, they have in excess of 300 other PCs deployed across the school.

In April 2009, after extensive testing of various thin-client technologies, they replaced their entire estate of dedicated PCs in the ICT suites with NComputing's L230 virtual desktops from KL - 90 workstations in all.  They run this environment on a virtualised server running VMWare.

They have experienced signficant benefits in many areas; running costs are significantly lower, aircon units have been turned off as there are no PCs in the classrooms, noise is non-existent, management costs have gone down, reliability is much higher and carbon footprint is massively reduced.

Challenge: to invest in state-of-the-art classroom computing technology that delivers educational benefits in the most environmentallyfriendly and cost-effective way.

Solution: replace New College Leicester's outdated PCs with NComputing's L-series virtual desktop kits.

Results: not only are New College Leicester looking at substantial cost savings and a massive reduction in their carbon footprint, teachers and students are benefiting from cooler, quieter and less cluttered working environments.

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When the time came for New College, Leicester - a secondary school with around 800 pupils - to start replacing their outdated PCs, ICT Manager Mark King, looked to “invest in new technology, but in the most sustainable, environmentally-friendly and cost-effective way”.

After investigating a wide range of 'thin-client' technologies and looking at solutions from all of the industry's market leaders, his research led him to the NComputing solution.

“When I first read about the NComputing technology, I just didn’t think that it was going to be able to deliver what it promised, so we decided to take a unit on evaluation. I soon discovered that it does exactly what we needed it to. We thought, ”this is fantastic - we really need to take this a step further now.”

The technology has now been deployed into all of New College’s ICT classrooms - with 90 NComputing Virtual Desktops deployed. Despite operating from relatively low-specification servers, the NComputing desktop virtualisation software easily runs the 90 virtual desktops, with plenty of additional scope for extra units. In comparison to the other technologies, it also uses very little bandwidth, meaning that the students experience a far faster response time at the desktop.

“In my professional opinion, if anyone was to ask my advice about where they should be investing their money with regards to replacing desktops or expanding their current desktop environment, I would strongly suggest that they look at NComputing. It’s saved us money. It’s saved us time. And it’s helped us a long way to meeting our green targets.”

Reducing Carbon Emissions, Meeting Targets & Saving Money

Not only does the NComputing system deliver in terms of performance and usability, the devices draw only 3% of the electricity used by traditional PCs, dramatically reducing both the school's carbon footprint and its energy bills. Over the previous five years, the cost of running 500 desktop computers to New College Leicester has been approximately £70,000, emitting nearly 260 tonnes of carbon emissions. Had the school been running the NComputing system over the same period, the cost would have only been £23,000. Carbon emissions would also have been reduced to only 88.4 tonnes; the school could have reduced their costs by £47,000 (67%) and their carbon emissions by 171.6 tonnes (66%)! The units are also solid state, which means they produce virtually no heat at all, eliminating the need for air-conditioning and further reducing both energy bills and carbon emissions.

According to the school's Head of ICT & Business Studies, Chirag Patel, “when the whole system is up and running, we estimate the school will save between £16,000 and £20,000 a year in energy costs alone; and that the NComputing system will have paid for itself in 9-12 months.”

Looking to the overall environmental impact, most PCs are disposed of after three to five years, creating about 10 kg of e-waste per computer that ends up in a landfill. However, NComputing access devices weigh just 150 grams and last around 10 years, so there’s less than half a percent of the e-waste created over a 10 year period. Combined with the huge carbon emissions reductions, the deployment of NComputing’s virtual desktop is having a hugely positive impact on the environment.

A Better Teaching Environment – Cooler, Quieter & Tidier

According to Patel, the NComputing system is already aiding in teaching and learning. “The temperature in the classroom is considerably cooler and we seem to be able to access files at a much quicker rate. I also have far fewer students coming to me to say they're having problems with getting onto the network”. Because the units are solid-state, they're also incredibly quiet, meaning that teachers no longer have to raise their voices to be heard when teaching. The small size of the NComputing units also allows them to be hidden under the desks, or mounted behind the screens, providing students with more space on their desk to work, as well as preventing vandalism.

So, How Does It All Work?

“The NComputing solution works because today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of applications only use a small fraction of the computer’s capacity.” NComputing’s hardware and vSpace™ virtualisation software taps into this unused capacity so that it can be simultaneously shared by multiple pupils. Each pupil’s monitor, keyboard, and mouse connect to the shared PC through a small and very durable NComputing access device. The access device itself has no CPU, memory, or moving parts - so it’s rugged, reliable, and easy to deploy and maintain. By spreading out the cost of the shared computer, schools can provide up to five times the number of stations for the same money.

The Future?

According to the ICT Manager, “In the future, we hope to expand our currentNComputing deployment, thus saving us more money, more time and further lowering our carbon footprint.”

“It's saved us money. It's saved us time. And it's helped us a long way to meeting our green targets.”