Virtual Labs

[agarabaghi]

Little background:

 

Small private college where students have access to several computer labs (~200pc and ~50mac). Each lab has a general group of software as well as specialty software. The software ranges from Office to Maya 3D. We are in the process of trying to figure out a plan to visualize some of this software. Of course we don't expect to stream Adobe Photoshop or Maya 3D to a students dorm room without spending a lot of money on hardware upgrades. What we would like to do, is provide a way for students to be anywhere on campus and be able to use certain software that is only found in labs. We did POC for VMware VDI and it seemed to work ok, but was really expensive and not that fluid. Cost savings only seemed to come after 5 yrs, and we already have full functioning lab desktops. We initially want a solution that will allow students access to these specialty programs on their laptop or desktops in their dorm rooms or anywhere else than in the actual lab. I spoke with a rep from Stoneware about their webNetwork product, which seems like a VDI style solution that may work, but I was wondering what other company could offer something similar that I could research ans speak to?

 

Sorry if I've posted this in the wrong section.

 

Thanks!

[cpjitservices]

Could you not roll the software out via Group Policy and then use ILT so that software only rolls out to certain clients on the network ? and then you could use Terminal Services so people who need to use the software remotely can login and use it from the server ?

[agarabaghi]

Our students are not on the Domain. They for the most part bring their own machines to the College. We would like something where they could login using a browser and have access to either the applications or a "lab desktop".

 

It look like Windows Server 2012 has some new VDI interfaces with remote app. Going to explorer that route a bit more.