Thomas College Provides Students with Dell and Microsoft

Thomas College provides students with Dell and Microsoft technologies, while reducing server • Backup/Recovery/Archiving • Consolidation • Power & Cooling footprint by 50% • Virtualization “ Windows 7 is well received here. It helps our students be more competitive during the hiring process.” Christopher Rhoda, Vice President for Information Services, Thomas College Customer Profile Company: Thomas College Industry: Education Country: United States Users: 1,100 student users; 150 staff users Web: www.thomas.edu Benefits Business Need • 50% less time to image machines Thomas College’s IT department needed a simplified system that with Windows 7 than with Vista would allow it to provide cutting-edge laptops, desktops and portable computers to the school while managing the data center • 30 minutes to set up virtual server more efficiently. • 50% less planned downtime • 50% reduction in server footprint Solution • 24 to 36 hours per year saved in SAN The school migrated to Windows® 7 on Dell™ Latitude™ laptops and Dell OptiPlex™ desktops while virtualizing servers on Dell PowerEdge™ administration time servers to help students become more productive and IT more • 30% reduction in heat generation efficient. Dell PowerVault™ SAN storage is easy to scale for growing • Simplified procurement with Dell’s storage needs. direct selling model Thomas College (Thomas) is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. Thomas offers a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum for undergraduate and graduate students in a wide variety of programs including arts and sciences, business, criminal justice, education and technology. Thomas is the only college in the nation that offers its graduates Guaranteed Job Placement within six months of graduation. On average, 94 percent of Thomas College graduates are hired in their field of study within 90 days of graduation. To help ensure that students are as qualified as possible for that first job, Technology at Work “ Windows 7 helps Thomas provides a cutting-edge IT Services infrastructure built with Windows Server improve user 2008 R2, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Dell™ CompleteCare™ Accidental productivity. for communication and collaboration, Damage and Theft Protection and Microsoft Office Communications Dell Support Services Windows 7 starts Server 2007 R2 for instant messaging and faster, and users Web-based conferencing. Hardware Thomas faculty, staff and students use Dell Latitude™ E6500 and D630 log in faster. Their Dell OptiPlex desktops and Dell Latitude laptops with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo laptop computers in computer labs and processors applications run the library. In addition, about 40 percent Dell OptiPlex™ 760 and 755 faster. Windows of students buy into the school’s desktops with Intel Core 2 Duo recommendation of a Dell laptop, processors which they purchase at a discount 7 assists the IT Dell PowerEdge™ M610 blade through a Dell Web site customized servers with Intel Xeon® 5500 department for Thomas. The most recent group of series processors students purchased Dell Latitude E6500 by enhancing laptops with Windows 7. Dell PowerEdge M600 blade servers with Intel Xeon processors the security of “We focus on getting the best Dell PowerEdge M1000e modular technology whenever we can,” says blade enclosure our computing Christopher Rhoda, vice president for environment.” information services. “But because Dell PowerVault™ MD3000i iSCSI there are just three of us to manage the SAN array Christopher Rhoda, Vice President college’s IT needs, we have to be sure Integrated Dell Remote Access for Information Services, that the technology we acquire allows Controllers (iDRAC 6 Enterprise) Thomas College us to streamline management tasks as much as possible.” Software ® Imaging Machines In Half Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 The Time Microsoft Office Professional Plus The IT department evaluated the 2010 Windows 7 operating system and Microsoft Office Communications decided to become an early adopter. Server 2007 R2 Approximately 200 Dell OptiPlex 760 Microsoft System Center Virtual and 755 desktops and Dell Latitude Machine Manager 2008 R2 E6500 and D630 laptops were converted to Windows 7 this year Windows® 7 using Microsoft Windows Deployment Windows Server® 2008 R2 with Services. “What we found that Hyper-V™ dramatically changed between Vista and Windows 7 for us is the Microsoft consolidated our UPS systems and Windows Deployment Services,” Rhoda reduced heat generation by more than states.” We can deploy an image onto a 30 percent.” machine now in a half the time that we could under Vista—about 20 minutes is 50% Reduction In Planned all it takes as opposed to 45. We saved Downtime more than 80 hours.” Another big change in the data center is using Microsoft Hyper-V on every The time savings is ongoing because one of the Dell blades. “Every blade frequently the IT department reimages is a virtual host running Windows a machine back to a known state rather Server 2008 R2,” says Rhoda. “Sitting than perform extensive repairs on the on top of each of those physical operating system. blades is anywhere from two to eight “Windows 7 is well received here,” virtual servers.” Rhoda continues. “It helps improve Using Microsoft System Center Virtual user productivity. Windows 7 starts Machine Manager, Rhoda can repair faster, and users log in faster. Their and upgrade the physical hosts without applications such as Microsoft Office “By the time we’re interrupting users by simply moving the Professional Plus 2010 run faster. virtual machine images to a different through moving Windows 7 assists the IT department blade. “We’re eliminating half our by enhancing the security of our to the Dell blades, planned downtime using the Dell blades computing environment. With BitLocker with Microsoft tools,” Rhoda estimates. To Go™ we can enforce the encryption we will have cut of data on USB drives.” IT can set up a new virtual machine in our server footprint one-half hour, which makes it easy to Hiring Advantage For Students accommodate new server needs of by 50 percent, Rhoda sees a major advantage in being the Thomas faculty. “I can easily see able to educate students on the same doubling the number of servers that consolidated our systems they are likely to see in the we have by adding more virtual workplace when they graduate. “It helps machines,” says Rhoda. “We can do UPS systems and our students be more competitive what Microsoft advises, which is to have reduced heat during the hiring process,” he says. one server per application, without “They can go into a company that hasn’t needing additional hardware.” generation by more already converted to Windows 7 and say The Dell PowerEdge M1000e modular that they’re ready to convert whenever than 30 percent.” blade enclosure helps reduce the cost that happens without having to go and complexity of managing computing Christopher Rhoda, Vice President through a learning curve.” resources so Rhoda can focus on for Information Services, Thomas College At the same time Thomas College managing the Thomas IT organization. moved to Windows 7, it also migrated To further simplify management tasks, to Windows Server 2008 R2 on its Thomas uses Integrated Dell Remote servers, which is a 64-bit platform, as Access Controllers (iDRAC 6 Enterprise) is Windows 7 on the user end. “The to troubleshoot servers and perform combination makes the desktops faster,” administration tasks remotely. The says Rhoda. iDRAC is integrated on the system board with other server components 30% Reduction In Heat Generation in Dell PowerEdge M-Series server In the data center, Thomas is in the blades and uses an integrated system- process of consolidating the last few on-chip processor for remote systems Dell PowerEdge rack-mount servers monitoring and management. onto Dell PowerEdge M610 and M600 “We’re not in the data center every day, blade servers. “We’re changing over so the ability to work from a remote to Dell blade servers to consolidate console makes us more comfortable our footprint and save on power and about being away,” explains Rhoda. cooling costs,” Rhoda explains. “We “My home is 15 miles away, and the have six remaining PowerEdge 2950 iDRAC erases that distance. I could be servers, and by the time we’re through anywhere with an Internet connection moving to the Dell blades, we will have and I can log in, power up and down, cut our server footprint by 50 percent, and do warm and cold boots.” Easy-To-Scale San Storage Simplified Procurement For storage in the data center, Thomas Dell Support Services keeps the college’s uses a Dell PowerVault MD3000i hardware running smoothly, while Dell iSCSI SAN array, which provides all CompleteCare Accidental Damage the benefits of high-performance, and Theft Protection Services offers centralized storage without the cost the support needed when accidents and complexity of a Fibre Channel happen. “When occasional problems or network. Having migrated from direct- accidents occur, Dell is on site the next attached storage, Rhoda appreciates the day to fix them,” says Rhoda. management benefits the SAN provides. According to Rhoda, Thomas has “The biggest advantage of the Dell been a Dell shop for as long as he can MD3000i for me is the ability to add a remember. “The reason we went with few more drives to the SAN as needed,” Dell initially was the fact that Dell offered he says. “Let’s say I have an E: drive so many ordering options on an easy- on a server that needs to go from 500 to-navigate Web site,” he says. “It’s really gigabytes to 800 gigabytes. I can just simplified the procurement process. throw a few more physical drives in the Being able to go to Dell’s site, look at SAN, partition the 800 gigs and copy the the different comparisons and models, data over. I just attach the SAN to that and decide what I can get at my price server and I’m done.

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