Learning blossoms on Customer profile legacy systems Socorro Independent School District delivers modern computing capabilities on 10-year-old desktop computers using VDI technologies Company Socorro Independent School District Industry Education K-12 Country United States Students 44,600 Faculty and Staff 7,000 Web site sisd.net

Institutional Need Socorro Independent School District was running a mix of desktop computers, including some that were up to 10 years old. Performance of the legacy systems limited their usefulness for teachers and students. Solution The district deployed a Citrix®-based ™ Desktop Virtualization Solution that runs on Dell PowerEdge™ blade servers supported by Dell EqualLogic™ storage and Dell PowerConnect™, Dell and Brocade switches. Benefits • Increased utilization of computer labs with legacy hardware • Windows® 7 and Microsoft® Office 2010 run on computers up to 10 years old • Threefold more VDI desktops than new physical computers for same investment • 1:4000 ratio of technicians to VDI “As students, teachers and administrators get desktops, vs. 1:2400 in legacy environment • 10 minutes to deploy changes to hands-on experience with VDI, we’re getting 3,600 desktops across 43 campuses buy-in from a lot of people. The virtual Solutions Featured • BYOD desktops powered by Dell are enhancing • Virtualization • Desktop Computing student learning across our district.” • Desktop Virtualization Hector Reyna, Director of Technology Services, • Networking Socorro Independent School District • Storage Services • Deployment Services • Support Services • Training Services In a corporate setting, computers tend to be retired as they reach end of life. In an educational setting, that is not always the case. “We really don’t retire computer hardware,” says Hector Reyna, director of technology services for Socorro Independent School District in El Paso, Texas. “We may move legacy systems around, but as long as they’re running, we keep using them in some capacity.”

Repurposing older hardware may benefit the short-term budget, but it often leads to Technology at work challenges. Some of the desktop computers at Socorro ISD are up to 10 years old. “We Solutions used to hear frequent complaints about Dell™ Desktop Virtualization some of the older systems,” says David Akers, Solution “Scalability is a team leader, technical support services, for major benefit of the district. Software such as the Accelerated Services Reader assessment program performed Dell Deployment Services Dell EqualLogic poorly on the legacy systems. And the sluggish performance of some instructional Dell Education Services storage. I’m able applications inhibited students’ ability to Dell Support Services complete assignments. “We had reached the - Dell ProSupport™ Mission Critical to stand up the point where aging hardware was causing with four hour onsite response - Dell ProSupport Technical storage for a new problems in our classrooms that were Account Manager (TAM) impacting education,” Akers says. - Dell Remote Advisory Services blade enclosure In addition, IT repairs interrupted class Hardware within 10 minutes. time. “Our staff was continuously traveling Brocade VDX6720 switches to schools to troubleshoot issues,” Akers It’s a point-and- Dell EqualLogic™ PS6510X iSCSI says. “We have 24,000 desktop computers storage area networks (SANs) click process across 43 campuses and 5 support facilities. Dell Force10 S4810 switches Over half of them are out of warranty, so that requires no support was becoming a pain point for our ™ computers downtime for our 10 desktop support technicians. We could Dell OptiPlex™ 9010 All-in-One have hired more staff, but that wouldn’t desktop computers make the computers any faster.” Socorro virtual desktops.” Dell PowerConnect™ M8024 switches ISD solved these problems with a virtual ™ David Akers, desktop infrastructure (VDI). Dell PowerEdge M620 blade Team Leader, servers with Intel® Xeon® Technical Support Services, processors E5-2600 series Bigger educational impact Socorro Independent on a broader scale Dell PowerEdge M710HD School District blade servers with Intel Xeon Socorro ISD was working on a bond processors initiative that would provide funding for a technology update. “The bond could have Dell PowerEdge M1000e modular blade enclosures funded around 3,000 new computers,” says Oscar Dominguez, manager, systems Software administration, for the district. “The more ® we looked into VDI, the more we saw an Citrix Provisioning Services opportunity to take the same money and Citrix XenDesktop® make a bigger impact on a broader scale Citrix XenServer® across our campuses.” Microsoft® Office 2010 The district already worked closely with Dell. Windows® 7 More than half of its desktop computers and printers are Dell systems, ranging

2 from Dell OptiPlex GX110 systems to The district is equally pleased with ongoing Dell OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One desktop management of the storage. “Since setup, computers and Dell Latitude E-series the Dell EqualLogic storage has required . The district has also recently begun very little management or monitoring,” purchasing interactive projectors from Dell Dominguez says. “The only management to replace broken interactive whiteboards. we’ve had to do is set up new LUNs for the new enclosures, which takes 15 to 20 When Socorro ISD began considering minutes. We occasionally check on the VDI solutions, Akers says, “some vendors health of the SANs, but for the most part, brought us bits and pieces of a solution, but this storage solution has been ‘set it up and the only vendor that offered a complete forget it.’” Adds Akers: “When I compare the solution—from servers, storage and EqualLogic storage with our EMC VNX arrays, switches to support and deployment the EqualLogic SANs are simple to use.” services—was Dell.” A team from Socorro ISD visited the Dell Solution Center in VDI actually decreases WAN utilization Round Rock, Texas, to see Dell’s complete The VDI initiative coincided with a network “When we’ve VDI solution in action. As a result of that trip, upgrade that the district already had Akers adds, the district realized that Dell planned. “We were seeing some pretty standardized on Desktop Virtualization Solution includes high saturation on the network during peak VDI, IT will spend everything the district needs to run VDI. times, when a lot of students are surfing the Internet for research papers or streaming more time on Socorro ISD engaged Dell Deployment multimedia content,” Akers says. “We Services to roll out Dell OEM Citrix needed to accelerate network performance innovation and less software. The first round of host servers to support the VDI infrastructure.” time on keeping that the district deployed were 16 Dell PowerEdge M710HD blades within a Socorro ISD was running both Fibre the lights on. I’m PowerEdge M1000e modular blade Channel and iSCSI. “Instead of upgrading enclosure. The district then rolled out six our to 8-Gigabit, we decided looking forward more blade enclosures, each housing 16 to try 10-Gigabit iSCSI,” Akers says. “It’s to being proactive PowerEdge M620 blades. “Moving to the very cost-effective, and at this point it’s 12th-generation blades brought a lot of been working great for eight months.” rather than reactive.” advantages,” Akers says. “They can host Dell Force10 S4810 switches provide more virtual desktops than the previous 10-Gigabit connectivity for the EqualLogic David Akers, Team Leader, generation, and they boot faster, which iSCSI SANs. The blade enclosures use Technical Support Services, can make a difference when we’re doing Dell PowerConnect M8024 switches, and Socorro Independent maintenance on all 112 blades.” Brocade VDX6720 switches route IP traffic. School District

For storage, the blades connect to four “According to our networking staff, the Dell EqualLogic PS6510X iSCSI storage VDI initiative hasn’t increased bandwidth area networks (SANs). “Scalability is a utilization on our wide area network—only major benefit of Dell EqualLogic storage,” within the data center,” Dominguez says. “In Akers says. “We started with one SAN, then fact, we’ve seen a decrease in WAN utilization. added three more. Standing them up was Video, multimedia software and other straightforward, and adding capacity is no applications are called from to server problem. I’m able to stand up the storage now. We’ve eliminated the one-off streaming for a new blade enclosure within 10 of applications from servers to desktops.” minutes—including installing the hardware, setting up security for the storage, setting Better instruction via VDI IP addresses and getting it running. It’s a Today the district runs 3,600 virtual point-and-click process that requires no desktops, with the hardware and software downtime for our virtual desktops.” licensing capacity to increase that number to 8,200—nearly threefold more desktops

3 than the 3,000 physical computers the VDI we didn’t have to interrupt classroom fast and cost-effective support for bond issue might have purchased. Most instruction to make the update.” specialized applications from a certified of the computers through which users expert. Dominguez believes both services access the virtual desktops are six or more This type of efficiency improvement are well worth the investment. years old. “This initiative has enabled our enables one support technician to manage campuses to repurpose a lot of older all of the district’s virtual desktops. “Before, “Our VDI platform experienced a failure on equipment,” Akers says. “We’re running we had a ratio of 1 technician to 2,400 the first day of school,” Dominguez says. Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 just desktop computers,” Akers says. “I’m “It’s working great now, and it worked great fine on computers that couldn’t support hoping with VDI, we’ll achieve a ratio of during our tests over the summer, but as them without our Dell-based VDI platform.” 1-to-4000, even with our legacy hardware. soon as all 3,600 virtual desktops started If we were rolling out new thin clients, logging on, there was a compatibility issue The virtual desktops substantially we could easily get to a 1-to-6000 ratio. between Citrix Provisioning Services and a improve performance of these systems. Ultimately, when we’ve standardized on third-party appliance we use for DHCP and “Booting some of our computers took VDI, IT will spend more time on innovation DNS resolution. We were extremely happy 10 to 20 minutes before, but the VDI and less time on keeping the lights on. I’m with the efforts of Dell Support Services to initiative has reduced that to around 2 looking forward to being proactive rather resolve the issue. They were fantastic.” minutes,” Dominguez says. “And our new than reactive.” environment enables applications to load In fact, Akers adds, the district’s Dell and run much faster than they would on Now the district is considering extending ProSupport Technical Account Manager our legacy hardware without VDI.” VDI to enable a Bring Your Own Device (TAM) reduced significantly the time (BYOD) initiative. “Our district can’t afford to required to resolve the issue. “Our TAM got In the past, some of the district’s computer buy a computer for every student,” Reyna all the right people involved, and she got labs saw little use. “If hardware is slow to says, “but students are already carrying them on the phone within 5 or 10 minutes,” boot or performance is poor, kids and mobile devices. VDI may enable us to he says. “At one point, we thought it might teachers tend to become frustrated,” Akers give students mobile access to all the be a switching issue, and she got Brocade, says. “A middle school teacher told me educational content we make available to Force10 and PowerConnect support staff she hadn’t used a particular computer them in classrooms and computer labs.” on the line at once, along with Dell’s Flex lab in two years because the hardware Computing group and Citrix.” ‘didn’t work.’ Since the VDI rollout, our “Fantastic” support from older computers are being used. In fact, end-to-end vendor Repurposed hardware revamps education sometimes teachers can’t tell which labs Socorro ISD eliminated the possibility Today, students across the district have have new hardware and which are running of finger-pointing in the event of a VDI access to new, high-end software that VDI on older systems. We are helping issue by deploying the Dell OEM version legacy computers in classrooms and teachers provide better instruction with the of Citrix XenDesktop on all-Dell hardware. labs wouldn’t be able to run without VDI. VDI environment that Dell helped us build.” “We definitely recommend deploying the Instructional applications perform well, Dell Desktop Virtualization Solution stack, heading off frustrations and fostering Nearly twofold more desktops per rather than trying to build a VDI platform students’ enthusiasm for using them. And support technician yourself,” Dominguez says. The district teachers now think it’s worthwhile to take Although the older systems will inevitably engaged Dell Education Services to provide classes down the hall to computer labs with have hardware issues from time to time, VDI onsite training for its 10 desktop support 10-year-old hardware. streamlines software management. “We technicians. “I highly recommend onsite recently needed to add an Internet link to training for any organization that needs to “As students, teachers and administrators every VDI desktop across all 43 campuses,” bring several people up to speed on a Dell get hands-on experience with VDI, we’re Akers says. “It took us 10 minutes to set up, technology,” Dominguez adds. getting buy-in from a lot of people outside then we asked our VDI users to reboot at our department,” Reyna says. “The virtual their convenience. When they rebooted, the Socorro ISD contracted with Dell desktops powered by Dell are enhancing link was there. Making this type of change ProSupport Mission Critical for four-hour the educational environment and improving to 3,600 traditional client computers would onsite response and with Dell Remote student learning across our district.” have taken us months. More important, with Advisory Services, which provides flexible,

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Availability and terms of Dell Services vary by region. For more information, visit: dell.com/servicedescriptions. © February 2013, Dell Inc. Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc. Intel and Intel Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel 4 Corporation in the United States or other countries. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. This case study is for informational purposes only. Dell makes no warranties, express or implied, in this case study. Reference number: 10011920