IBM wins school virtualisation deal

IBM’s business partner, the Missing Link has won a contract to install blade servers at a Sydney International Grammar School (IGS).

The school needed a robust computer system for its students to support its technical and visual arts applications, and free up classroom space whilst producing little or no heat with low energy consumption.

The Missing Link installed 42 IBM HC10 blade workstations, coupled with the IBM BladeCenter E Chassis and Cool Blue technology.

Students can now access applications running from any one of the blade workstations across the campus, saving time and resources.

The school runs the blades in a 1:1 set-up, with one blade for each user. Normally, one blade caters for multiple users.

Patrick Skagerfalt, IGS facilities manager said the school needed the hardware power to run Photoshop, PremierPro (movie editing), SolidEdge and VectorWorks (3D design) software applications.

“The IBM blade workstation configuration gave us the grunt we needed to do this. The decision to deploy them was a no-brainer,” said Skagerfalt.

“The blade workstations tick all the right boxes. Students can do with them what they couldn’t do before, especially work in a timely fashion. The systems are more responsive, and we are delivering lessons faster and better,” he added.

IGS based in Ultimo, Sydney, has 1,200 students and operates a unconventional style of client/server environment, with high-end desktop computers as (thick) clients and lower-end (thin) servers.

The installation of the IBM HC10 blade workstations marks IGS’s first step towards desktop and server virtualisation.

“We are pretty much revamping our whole ICT environment,” said Skagerfalt. “The old way of computing was costing us a bomb, in terms of support and maintenance costs. With virtualisation, the days of constantly upgrading our systems will be long gone.”