NComputing saves district a over half million in hardware

Steve Young, Chief Technology Officer of the Judson school district in Texas, recently performed his own energy cost analysis a year after beginning a major computer upgrade and expansion program in his school district of 21,000 students outside of San Antonio.

The NComputing x300 solution that Young used is a modified thin client that virtualizes the host OS and shares the host’s resources. It is installed via a PCI card into the host machine, and up to 3 terminals can be connected to each PCI card. Young decided to focus NComputing x300 deployment into three areas: elementary schools, middle schools and library student stations.

Young replaced 418 older computers with energy-efficient PCs and added NComputing equipment to provide 1,260 more computing seats. Running the 418 new PCs cost the district $12,477, a savings of $940 from the previous year and computers. The switch allowed Young to more than triple the access to computers for his students while cutting the energy cost per computing seat by 73%, saving money on the school buildings’ air conditioning bills and cutting electrical capacity requirements. The NComputing solution also leads to reduced e-waste for disposal, since there are 3 fewer CPUs.

In addition, Young saved money on equipment—the NComputing configuration saved him $575,000 over the costs of going just with PCs. The x300s will be used for a variety of goals and projects, including research, a center for integration projects, and incentive for teacher proficiency in computer literacy.