Laptop Trolleys

[mshill]

Hi All

 

We are looking at rolling out 600 new 13.3" laptops over the summer holidays. We have been looking into both network managed trolleys and the standard because the amount of updates manually would become very difficult. What have other schools done in this situation? and what trolleys would people recommend?

 

Regards

[FN-GM]

We are rolling out new laptop banks like yourself. We have also found it to be a nightmare in keeping them upto date and pushing new apps to them. We instead have gone for Wyse thin client laptops that connect to a Citrix farm. That way we only have to push new apps to the Citrix server.

[rad]

Cant help there but I will pass the EduHobnobs in preparation. 600 new shiny laptops would be my worst nightmare.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I would say it comes down to balancing the cost of getting network managed trolleys versus the time it would take to manually set them all up!

 

If you want to talk trolley options and pricing let me know, I can work out some great deals for you

[twin--turbo]

Citrix all the way... with HP Thin Client Laptops..

 

But we are going to be reducing our esate of Laptops and revertign back to fixed I.T. ( still mostly Citrix thin terminals ).

 

Rob

[broc]

We were provided 20+ KeepITSecure N series networked trolleys when we had 550 laptops deployed as part of BSF.

 

They are very robust trolleys & we have top quality laptops. I have no issues with either the trolleys or laptops but we did have major integration issues with the overall solution..

 

Some points to watch out for:

 

The 30 device trolleys are very heavy & really need two people (adults) to move them safely. Asking 2x Year 7 students to move them could end up with lumps out of the door frames and any nearby furniture (or people) that get in the way.

 

Staff & students cannot be trusted to unplug the trolleys from data points and power before moving them. We have had several data point sockets ripped from the walls when trolleys were moved without unplugging. More seriously we have had damage to power sockets & trailing leads for the same reason.

 

Caretaking staff who are on an energy saving mission can switch sockets off while trolleys are charging.....

 

Watch out for how the device cabling is handled within the trolley. We were given laptops which had a network port on one side & power on the other. We rapidly discovered significant damage to network ports as kids pulled the devices out of the trolley. We sustained damage to 150+ devices out of 300 within a couple of months! Fortunately the data port is on a small plug in module so we can replace these at a modest cost.

 

We ended up having to remove all the data cables which rather negated the benefits of networked trolleys. We only put the data cables in (rarely) if we want to schedule updates ourselves, most devices now receive updates over wireless.

 

Software deployment to 20-30 devices in a trolley needs serious bandwidth. Ours were all plugged into data points running at 100mbit. It needs to be faster!

[X-13]

We have networked trollies [2 x 16 bay laptop trollies] and if you're looking into that as an option, MAKE SURE THEY HAVE DECENT FANS!

 

When updating, our laptops get quite hot.

[twin--turbo]

We were provided 20+ KeepITSecure N series networked trolleys when we had 550 laptops deployed as part of BSF.

 

They are very robust trolleys & we have top quality laptops. I have no issues with either the trolleys or laptops but we did have major integration issues with the overall solution..

 

Some points to watch out for:

 

The 30 device trolleys are very heavy & really need two people (adults) to move them safely. Asking 2x Year 7 students to move them could end up with lumps out of the door frames and any nearby furniture (or people) that get in the way.

 

Staff & students cannot be trusted to unplug the trolleys from data points and power before moving them. We have had several data point sockets ripped from the walls when trolleys were moved without unplugging. More seriously we have had damage to power sockets & trailing leads for the same reason.

 

Caretaking staff who are on an energy saving mission can switch sockets off while trolleys are charging.....

 

Watch out for how the device cabling is handled within the trolley. We were given laptops which had a network port on one side & power on the other. We rapidly discovered significant damage to network ports as kids pulled the devices out of the trolley. We sustained damage to 150+ devices out of 300 within a couple of months! Fortunately the data port is on a small plug in module so we can replace these at a modest cost.

 

We ended up having to remove all the data cables which rather negated the benefits of networked trolleys. We only put the data cables in (rarely) if we want to schedule updates ourselves, most devices now receive updates over wireless.

 

Software deployment to 20-30 devices in a trolley needs serious bandwidth. Ours were all plugged into data points running at 100mbit. It needs to be faster!

 

We had KIS n-serise , the power cables kept being ripped out the back of the unit by careless staff and students, we had to engineer a plate to mount IEC sockets so that there was a breakaway facility. They still got damaged.

 

Never bothered with the network connectivity.

 

They were very very heavy.

 

Our laptops are in "Inteligent" fixed lockers at the moment which require swipe card access.

 

 

 

 

Another thing to point out is that 600 wireless devices could cripple whatever wireless network they are on.

 

Rob

[mshill]

Sounds like the network management side of charging trolleys doesn't really work! We are also having a new managed WiFi solution installed with around 90+ access points around the building. Half the battle will be getting people to look after both the trollies and the laptops!

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Sounds like the network management side of charging trolleys doesn't really work! We are also having a new managed WiFi solution installed with around 90+ access points around the building. Half the battle will be getting people to look after both the trollies and the laptops!

 

Looking after laptops can be tricky as they're not the most robust of devices. However, get the right trolley and it'll be nigh on indestructible!

[MikeGilbert]

Software deployment to 20-30 devices in a trolley needs serious bandwidth. Ours were all plugged into data points running at 100mbit. It needs to be faster!

 

100Mbit network in a BSF site? Someone underspecced that, then...

[twin--turbo]

spent all morning so far putting keys back on laptops.

 

this one has 9 missing..

[broc]

100Mbit network in a BSF site? Someone underspecced that, then...

 

Agreed, Not my choice/decision. The 'experts' decided. We asked for 1gbit/s & were provided with 100mbit/s to the desktop...... mainly because most devices are wireless. Software distribution via SCCM across 100mbit to laptop trolleys was painfully slow

[Haptic]

Top of the range but highly expensive - Bretford

A good solid contender, excellent company and superb customer service - Lapsafe

Budget range - Monarch

 

Drop us a PM if you'd like pricing

 

Dan

[twin--turbo]

We have a £12K fixed Lapsafe with smartlien charging for some legacy HP laptops. It's built like a brick S...t House! the building will fall down arround it!

 

Rob