The Education IT Dilemma

The need to supply higher levels of IT services to students, faculty, and staff has never been greater. Whether users reside in classrooms, libraries, laboratories or off-campus, IT administrators must balance the needs of the user with budget realities.

Systems are scattered and constantly changing; hardware is modified and software applications are installed and updated. Sometimes these are beneficial and necessary changes made by IT staff … and sometimes they're detrimental and unauthorized. When the help desk receives a call, will the administrator know the root cause of the issue? Is it an isolated event or the first of many calls demanding resources? With many systems left on over night and over weekends, energy and budgets are wasted. These systems may provide an unauthorized entry point to confidential information leaving the school open to security breaches and compliance violations.

How can a small IT staff proactively manage a dynamic and remote environment touched by thousands of people daily? How can it conserve energy, preserve its budget, and mitigate risk when systems are out of sight and out of mind?

Region 12 Takes a Pro-Active Approach

Regional School District 12 serves the residents of Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington, Connecticut. The technology department, led by network manager Joe Martino, is responsible for managing 300 PCs and 10 servers located within Region 12's 5 schools. Typically, two to three systems a week have hardware or software issues. It requires time and effort to travel to the sites (located within a 64 square mile boundary) to diagnose and resolve the problems. A second visit is often necessary to resolve a hardware issue, costing the school money.

Joe's goal was to reduce the amount of time and effort needed to solve problems. He knew that reactive systems management was not efficient. He knew he had to become pro-active … he had to know the exact makeup of the environment, the location of each asset, and its exact configuration. He needed a powerful tool that would allow him to:

• See the environment, in real time and historically
• Be softly warned of potential issues
• Be interrupted by critical issues
• Remotely diagnose problems
• Remotely RESOLVE the problems

The Solution

Integrated Financial Systems (IFS), a SyAM Software technology partner and trusted advisor within the education sector, realized that Region 12 needed remote management and system health monitoring to resolve their problems. IFS identified SyAM Software's System Area Manager and Management Utilities as a powerful yet surprisingly easy to use and inexpensive solution.

"Energy cost savings have allowed us to maintain our technology budget for the students." - Robert Giesen, Business Manager, Region 12 School District, Connecticut

The solution provides what Region 12 needed, and it was quick to deploy across the network using SyAM Software's Management Utility. The browser based interface was easy to use and required no training; giving the IT staff an immediate understanding of, and access to, all of their systems. Now that the systems are monitored and the central alerting configured the IT team at Region 12 will know of issues in advance, essential for providing higher levels of service.

Michael Mazzariello, Director of Alliances for IFS, stated that, "Joe now has a powerful tool at his disposal which provides him with even more control of his environment. He knows where his IT assets are, their operational status and a history of changes and identified issues. Joe also has remote access to his IT assets from anywhere using a web browser." Mike went on to say that, "using the SyAM Software Management Utilities, Joe can now identify vulnerabilities across groups of systems and patch them remotely without leaving his desk or disrupting the class."

With many systems left on overnight, IFS saw the opportunity to save its client hard dollars. The SyAM Software Power Management Scheduler would quickly deliver the potential savings, by creating and enforcing power policies for the automated shutdown-power on of a specific PC or group. "Relying on faculty and administration to save money and energy by manually shutting down their PCs each evening was not efficient. Inevitably many systems were forgotten and left on," stated Martino. Once the scheduler was in place, the risk of a security breach through systems left on after hours was lessened.

Joe now keeps the reins on the ever increasing energy costs. These savings allowed Region 12 to stretch their technology budget. He went on to say, "IFS worked with Northeast Utilities (CL&P) on Region 12's behalf to have this project evaluated and certified for incentives from the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund (CEEF). Because actual power usage would decline, the CEEF helped fund the initial investment in the SyAM Software."

Expanding Remote Management

Joe now has a tool that provides real-time monitoring, alerting, IT asset tracking, and remote resolution to operational systems. His next step is to have out of band management access even to non-operational systems. With savings from reduced energy costs, the school was able to implement new platforms which further improved their service levels.

As part of the project's extension, SyAM Software, the IT team from Region 12, and IFS extended systems management with deployment of Intel® vPro™ technology. The out of band effectiveness of the vPro AMT (active management technology) and the SyAM Software solution enable manageability, even when a PC is powered off or an operating system is unresponsive. Joe and his staff can now use the same SyAM interface to remotely power PCs on and restore them remotely from an image stored at the service center; again, without having to leave their desk.

On-site visits previously necessary to resolve problems are eliminated or significantly reduced, and efficiencies are greatly improved. Joe now has a tool that provides real-time monitoring, alerting, IT asset tracking, and remote resolution to operational systems. His next step is to have out of band management access even to non-operational systems. With savings from reduced energy costs, the school was able to implement new platforms which further improved their service levels.

As part of the project's extension, SyAM Software, the IT team from Region 12, and IFS extended systems management with deployment of Intel® vPro™ technology. The out of band effectiveness of the vPro AMT (active management technology) and the SyAM Software solution enable manageability, even when a PC is powered off or an operating system is unresponsive. Joe and his staff can now use the same SyAM interface to remotely power PCs on and restore them remotely from an image stored at the service center; again, without having to leave their desk.

On-site visits previously necessary to resolve problems are eliminated or significantly reduced, and efficiencies are greatly improved.

The Result

By implementing SyAM Software's System Area Manager and System Clients across Region 12's PC's, it became easier for Joe and his team to increase system availability, improve accountability, maximize system resource utilization, and reduce total cost of ownership.

Regional 12's return on investment for the IFS/SyAM Software solution is quickly being realized through energy savings and increased productivity. (See the power savings estimate on the right.)

As the Region 12 School District continues to refresh its environment with Intel® vPro™ platforms; power management, service levels and system utilization will significantly continue to improve.

"Relying on faculty and administration to save money and energy by manually shutting down their PCs each evening was not efficient, many systems were forgotten and left on. SyAM Software's Power Management feature made this difficult task simple." - Joe Martino, Network Manager, Region 12 School District, Connecticut