Transition to google environment from windows WAN

[swpmre]

Dear all,

 

I work for an Education Service that has multiple sites based across our city - these are all currently managed on our Windows 2012 R2 network - we have a site that hosts our servers, and a secondary site with backup servers and domain controllers at all locations. Only our teaching network is on this windows network - our admin staff use a completely physically separate network provided by the council.

 

Management have a development strategy that envisages us moving to a google cloud based environment for teaching within a few years. This will be done via purchase of lots of chrome books and boxes and the repurposing of existing equipment using neverware.

 

So my question to the EduGeek hivemind is what should I look out for (except for a new job! - I've got 25 years on windows networks, I don't really want to change)? Management are keen to phase out the Windows network completely - though I've argued we'll need to retain it for managing networked printers etc at least in the short term. But what other pitfalls are there?

 

Thanks in advance,

Martin

[mavhc]

Change is built into working with technology. If you're scrapping Windows completely you'll be managing accounts via GSuite Admin. Look into GSuite backup solutions, and cloud enabled printers. You'll still need dhcp server, but anything can do that.

 

Watch out for length of support for the clients, and the management licences for education.

[swpmre]

Watch out for length of support for the clients, and the management licences for education.

 

Do you mean that (eg) the chrome books are only supported for a certain length of time? In which case what happens after that time runs out - are they scrapped?

[mavhc]

They don't get updates, so they might be insecure, in practise they're probably fine

[dhicks]

Do you mean that (eg) the chrome books are only supported for a certain length of time? In which case what happens after that time runs out - are they scrapped?

 

As pointed out, software updates will eventually stop being available for older devices, although in practice I'd have thought you'd get at least 5 years of software support for most devices. However, we're finding the problem with our 2-year-old Chromebooks is finding spare parts for broken screens / keyboards - as soon as the device is replaced by a new model, the spare parts also stop being manufactured, so there's an increasingly limited supply available. We have our Chromebooks deployed in classrooms in cabinets, ready for children to use, and they're actually proving quite robust, but still daily use takes its toll. Something to consider when deploying a sizeable number of devices - how many spare devices to purchase, how many spare parts to keep in stock, who pays for repairs.

[PotNoodleTech]

Regarding updates, everyone is worried about the update dates, I wouldn't worry so much.

 

I have an original Samsung chromebook here that is donkeys years old and it is still getting each chrome update successfully applied to it with no issues.

 

// Just had a look, it is a 2012 model and it is supposedly out of updates now, I had one a couple of days ago on it!

Edited December 5, 2018 by PotNoodleTech

[Arthur]

what happens after that time runs out - are they scrapped?

How to beat ChromeOS EOL and carry on getting updates

[swpmre]

Thanks for this. Do you have any other hardware advice? Which cabinets do you use? Did your staff find the transition to google hard? Or do you still have a mixed Windows/Chrome environment? Really trying to get my head around this change.

[supportman]

Loads of US schools are going this way so its great to hear some schools on this side of the pond are testing it out.

 

Personally I think its a great idea. Simple management, cloud based, safe environment and pretty future proof.

[swpmre]

We aren't actually a school - we're adult education, so there are some significant differences - but I'd be interested in any information/experiences you have on the transition.

[dhicks]

Do you have any other hardware advice? Which cabinets do you use? Did your staff find the transition to google hard? Or do you still have a mixed Windows/Chrome environment?

 

If you have existing laptops or desktops, you can switch them over to ChromeOS by using CloudReady's installer. Their Home version is free, which might be worth trying out just to see how you get on, and you pay a yearly fee (£10 a device) for a version you can manage with the Google Admin Console just like any other Chromebook. It's a good way of re-using older hardware, too - you can get a few more years out of your existing devices.

 

We are using a mixture of Lock'n'Charge cabinets (the ones with the removeable baskets of five devices) and Loxit cabinets. In both cases, this is with children, years 4 to 8, and we're guessing most of our damaged devices are being bashed against the edges of the cabinets as devices are grabed and pulled in / out of the cabinet during registration. I don't think anyone's using the removeable baskets, and most of the damage we're seeing on devices is dents on the side and screens broken from the edge, the same sort of thing as you see on phones.

 

We're still working on shifting staff over to web / cloud-based systems in general - I've just switched a bunch of laptops in the staffroom over to CloudReady, we'll see how the staff get on. We have a web-based gateway to a Windows remote access server, so in theory they can actually carry on just the same as they always have.

[swpmre]

Thanks very much for this. Really helpful.

[mavhc]

Not using chromebooks here, but we're trialling assigning one per pupil, in the hopes that "if you damage it the person with the damaged laptop is you" sinks in.

 

But in general start from the top, stop emailing documents around, share, collaborate.

 

Don't just discuss something in a staff meeting, put the document on the projector and everyone edit it.

 

Use Google Classroom. Expect to spend time converting things from MS Office to GSuite. No need for a text box to write in, or a line of ................s, pages are dynamic now.

 

Use Google Forms, a lot.

 

Look into how Team Drives work, don't just have 1 shared drive for everything, but one for each subject, or class, or group.

[jmak]

Thanks for this. Do you have any other hardware advice? Which cabinets do you use? Did your staff find the transition to google hard? Or do you still have a mixed Windows/Chrome environment? Really trying to get my head around this change.

They work best if you get fully into the Google environment, but are surprisingly effective in a mixed environment. We have one at home and with the MS Office Android apps, working on office documents from SharePoint is fine.

 

I'm also finding that Google docs does a better job of opening office documents than they used to.