Columbus City Schools Sets IT Example for Urban Districts

Columbus City Schools sees cloud computing, virtual infrastructure and 24/7 access to learning resources as the way of the future.

The district IT team set out on a mission to become the model information technology organization for urban Ohio districts, and it's fulfilling the mission by virtualizing software and servers.

With more than 52,000 students, 7,500 employees and 1,500 heavily-used applications, that's a tall order. Other districts have tried similar projects in a limited fashion, but Columbus City Schools blazed its own trail, said IT operations manager Michele VanDyke.

“We modeled what works actually on a district-wide scale."

Lead the way

The solutions on the market don't work from the data center to the desktop, she said, so they collaborated with several companies to create a model solution. 

Since January 2009, the district replaced 19,000 computers with thin-client workstations and repurposed 3,000 computers as thin clients. Instead of holding 250 servers, the three data centers now contain 15 physical servers that house 113 virtual servers. And by the time school starts this month, the IT staff will finish the virtualization project.

The project will save the district $145.29 per computer, including software, license and installation costs. The IT staff and teachers will also save time.

The computers they replaced were 10 to 12 years old, and when something went wrong, the IT staff spent days or weeks finding parts to fix them. Now they find a new solution in a matter of minutes, said CIO Rod Houpe.

By managing software centrally, they're in better shape, he said. Through software, they can track users by individual logins, which allows them to:

• Monitor what's going on remotely.
• Open access to certain websites by user, class or building instead of opening them to everyone for a few hours.
• Give students and teachers individual storage space in the data center. If a unit goes down, the IT team can restore their last session by turning the machine on and off.

When a virus infects a computer or someone accesses an off-limits website, the IT staff previously had to reimage the computer on-site, which disrupted classroom instruction. Now IT can turn the machine off and on remotely.

“We’re able to do a lot of the diagnostics and a lot of the repair or restoration of individual machines here from our office,” VanDyke said.

3 keys to a successful virtualization project

Throughout the project, the IT team members have learned lessons that they're sharing with other districts, including members of the Council of the Great City Schools, Houpe said.

“Being a leader in this space, I always teach my team: 'We always want to be on the leading edge, and we’ll teeter on the bleeding edge.'"

The IT team battled through different challenges and accomplished its mission by using these three keys. 

1. Earn top-level support

If you don't have support from the superintendent and CEO, you won't succeed, Houpe said.

“You want to make sure that your CEO understands the value associated with technology, ’cause technology does matter in the overall strategy of an organization.”

2. Invest in infrustructure

If you don't have the right infrastructure, your end user experience will be horrible, he said, and that's going to ultimately lead to failure.

At least 10 years ago, the district invested in a 1 gigabit network down to the desktop, so it was well positioned for this project, VanDyke said.

“You have to have the network to do this, because everything’s running from the data center."

Of the $4 million network price tag, the district pays 20 percent and the federal government pays 80 percent based on the percentage of students on free and reduced lunches. And other large urban districts with similar percentages can do the same thing. 

3. Know where you want to go

Before you start a project like this, figure out where you're headed in the future. In the case of Columbus City Schools, the district is headed to cloud computing.

And once you've successfully implemented the project, know how to leverage the technology to go where you're headed.

Columbus City Schools is leading the way with 24/7 access to education resources. Will you follow?