Getting a suite of MACs in a School

[bandgeekmafia78]

Hi,

 

My school is considering whether to purchase 30 iMACs for a new classroom in September.

 

I was just wondering whether it is advisable to purchase a MAC Server in addition to this, and whether it is advisable to add them to the school network or have them as standalones?

 

I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to MACs so any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Alan.

[Tricky_Dicky]

Hi Alan,

 

We are in the same boat. We are getting 31 education edition iMacs along with a macmini server at the moment and the machines will be part of our normal AD network so the children and teachers can log on with their normal usernames/passwords.

 

Have a word with some of the mac specialists who will be able to help. KRCS and AT are two of the bigger ones.

 

Rich

[bandgeekmafia78]

Cheers Rich,

 

Are you looking at a managed solution or are you going to configure the MAC Server and AD authentication yourself? I've just had a look at Equanet and they seem pretty good.

[Tricky_Dicky]

We are having the company who are supplying it come in and do the install and some training with staff. Doing it that way for a couple of reasons, firstly if it doesn't work they don't get paid so it will work before they leave and having the training by the same people means we get consistency and hopefully the best use out of them.

Rich

[bandgeekmafia78]

Have you decided which company you are going to purchase from? I think I'm going to do the same as you - get them to come in and do the setup + training. IMO the iMACS are pretty expensive, but what the headteacher wants the headteacher gets!

 

Thanks.

Alan.