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Don't a lot of the newer VDI devices have the extra graphics processing/caching etc to perform video editing or similar tasks? I guess most schools would be looking at a combination of thick and thin clients initially.Quote:
Originally Posted by broc
No chance - I'm going for Wines & Spirits Manager, nothing less...Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenWonder
Hi,
Was the managed provider Capita?
Thanks
IMHO fat clients for the teaching staff, if the WAN ever goes down (although we have been assured that with 2 links to the WAN this won't happen) they should in theory still be able to teach ...Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenWonder
Would that be the two links, using the same connection technology, running through the same pipe, to the same local exchange/access hub? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by AngryITGuy
No, LA ICT Managed Service.Quote:
Originally Posted by FN-GM
Strictly speaking, I understand the solution was designed & implemented by Capita as part of the Inspired Spaces Consortium, with service delivery to be done by a new LA ICT Managed Service.Quote:
Originally Posted by mounters
Capita replaced Morse who were the original ICT provider for the Inspired Spaces Durham BSF bid along with Carillion.
I am sure it is too early to say where the responsibility for failure lies.....
We have been led to believe that the two links will take different routes back to the data centre, and that infrastructure has been designed to ensure that there will always be a link available back to the data centre if one goes down from the school or if multiple links go down across the WAN.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trust-No-One
@AngryITGuy Thanks, interesting.
Well that's all well and good.... But the thursday before Easter Friday, there was a problem provider-end with the connection to every single school (and I believe some Local Council) sites in the entire town; All the lines are managed by an external company. In 4-5 years of working, I've never seen a hardware failure of the broadband lines, every outage I've had has been 20-30 minutes, up to 1 1/2 days and been related to a cock up with the company the provides the lines, and 95% of these issues have been across the entire town, based in the exchange, or the data centre. You could string up 100 lines between 2 places, and they could be sent via different towns, hell you could send one of them via Poland and back. But if they are all managed by a single company, and the same exchanges, it's all pointless anyway.
Oops - givingQuote:
Originally Posted by mounters
"Service Unavailable
HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable."
Not sure if that's from their old kit of the new MSP!
No reason why thin clients shouldn't be able to work but it does need well provided central servers. One of the intriguing things with Sharepoint 2010 is that you can do video and photo editing on line in the web apps. I know that's not really thin client but it shows the sort of thing you can do with the processing handled on a central server rather than on the client.
Get it all working well and there are potentially huge savings - just look at how many threads here concern imaging desktop machines. Thin clients mean you never have to do that which will save money (but saving money is pointless if the kit doesn't work ...)
PS just done a bit more googling - looks like the school only started using the new systems this month. google's cached version of the web site says "The Project Board has decided that due to pressures of time and issues experienced during the migration of the school to the new systems we will be rolling back to the school systems as they were prior to the Easter Break." so it doesn't look like it's been installed and failed after significant use but rather that they've tried to move to a new system, the move has failed and (perfectly reasonably) they've moved back to the system they had a couple of weeks ago. I could be mis-understanding that; it would certainly be good to get more detail but I'm not sure that this is a complete disaster but rather a fairly standard "we think we can change but we have fallback position if it goes wrong"
Lets put it this way i wouldn't like to be a student in this college at the moment studying my A levels with the systems going up and down like a well known ladies drawers!
Its a business model with schools tacked onto the end as an after thought.
Even though we are led to believe that with the layer 3 technology which is being used the thin client footprint is 35K, what happens to the large file sizes passed over the WAN by up to 30,000 students who log in every hour on the hour and off again surely it must create bottlenecks somewhere.
Add on the staff and it equates in total to approx 40,000 which is a huge number to divide into the bandwidth even when they are putting 2 x 100Mb lines into every school i't just don't add up real time with the large file sizes.
Then there is the flash and video which is causing the major problems with heavy 3D applications and video editing software, I would have liked personally to see a centralised VTLE with a single sign on for all users which would have allowed all students and staff the ability from all schools to collaborate and share good practise even in the new schools instead of forcing schools down a one shoe fits all scenario which doesn't allow for innovation unless you pay through the nose for it.
Don't get me wrong I am all in favour of new schools but at what cost to the public purse through taxes and for what, so large companies can make profit at the taxpayers expense again.
Mark my words it will all end in tears for some students as their T & L is disrupted for the sake of proving a point.
I personally wish that Durham LA would let everyone into the picture as it looks more and more like a vendetta against the Durham schools IT professionals for doing a good job with the limited budgets that they are given.
who manages Druham Johnson IT system?
Large files *aren't* passed over your connection with a VDI/thin client system - they're all on the servers, not the clients. The client footprint will be about 35kbps, as all the user sees is the image of their desktop.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trust-No-One
LA Managed ServiceQuote:
Originally Posted by PEO