That's why Colorado Springs School District 11 CIO Dennis Shultz invested in CA's Desktop and Server Management r11 software. It helps him stay on top of 12,000 Dell workstations and 600 servers spread across 62 school buildings where 30,000 students are logged on.
When District 11 first got the funding for all that hardware and software, it wasn't uncommon for a system to be down for hours, even days. "The student has basically lost that day's class time," Shultz says. "It's important that the systems are up so we see student achievement on the upswing."
With only four techies dedicated to the student network, it was impossible to manually troubleshoot and repair all these computers; some schools are more than a half-hour drive away from the CIO's office. The CA software provides District 11 with remote control, remote reboot and centralized policy and session management.
And Shultz eliminated the $25 fee that Dell charges per desktop to refresh the operating systems by purchasing CA's Unicenter Software Delivery to update each computer. Since District 11 typically has to replace more than 2,000 desktops a year from Dell, Shultz can save more than $50,000 annually. And now he's happier than a high-school senior holding an early-admission letter. Problem solved.
Kate Evans-Correia was editor of SearchCIO.com and SearchCIO-Midmarket.com. To comment on this story, write to editor@ciodecisions.com.
This was first published in September 2006