Bring Your Own Laptop Student Access to College Software from Home CIT2008 Presentation by: Ross.Harker@LethbridgeCollege.ab.ca Dwayne.Harapnuik@Lethbridgecollege.ab.ca

Presentation Overview: Vision Goals Objectives Project Results

Our Vision To be recognized as one of Canada's finest comprehensive colleges providing world-class education and training through commitment to excellence and innovation.

Achieve Operational Excellence Enhance the Student Experience Our Goals Manage our Enrolments Achieve Operational Excellence Enhance the Student Experience Manage our Enrolments Technical advances may attract more students Reduction of barriers may retain more students Achieve Operational Excellence Reduce college capital and operating costs Enhance the Student Experience Easy access to the software they need (anytime, anywhere, anyhow) Encourage students to bring their laptops to campus Engage the students with relevant technologies

Student Virtual Desktop Project Objectives: Enhance student access to resources Reduce college owned computer labs Provide flexible software management Distribute College applications to Student’s personal laptops Relate these to the College Goals.

Researched several Virtual concepts Mixed application environment Project Details: Researched several Virtual concepts Mixed application environment Two technologies selected: VMware’s VDI Symantec’s Appstream VDI would not do everything we need, Appstream is very similar to imaging technology we currently have in place We determined very quickly that both technologies would be needed to complete this project.

Virtual Desktop: North Carolina State University originally developed a connection broker to allow students to “Remote Desktop” into the closed computer labs to access all the software and resources in the lab.

Application Streaming: Concept: Breaks up applications into chunks The streamed applications move very efficiently across network Security settings allow granular control of streamed applications. I think everyone will be more familiar with VDI so I will discuss more what we have found with appstream. When an application is streamed only parts are sent to the target computer the application begins to cache on the local system. As more and more features are used in an application more chunks are streamed to the computer as needed. This process is not noticed by the end user.

Application Streaming: User Benefits: Authentication through web portal On-demand application delivery Self-service software distribution Control of what is on their laptops No modification to Windows registry Could use the analogy of Pay-per-View or Video-on-Demand movies. Some applications a student may not want to use or may want to use something different they have the choice. Applications do not install, so no modifications to registry are made. There a fewer chances of having compatibility issues.

Application Streaming: IT Benefits: Simplified application provisioning Simplified software updates Maximize use of software licenses Reduce administration, deployment, monitoring, and maintenance costs Any classroom can be a computer lab Patch management and Image changes plague IT departments in getting these out in a timely manner.

Other Uses for these Techologies: Customized ad hoc industry training Testing beta software before install Access to secured resources Stream a virtual desktop to a computer In multi use lab environments applications can be streamed instead of images being downloaded

Challenges: Printing Access to Domain Storage Resources Ensuring our network is protected Conflicts if application is currently installed

Demonstration Instructions Connect to network (wireless?) Vdicon.lethbridgecollege.ab.ca Logon: vdiguest Password: vdiguest Select XP click on “connect” We are still sorting out the security requirements for Appstream so we will connect through a VDI console to stream some applications

Open IE and go to the following http://astream.lethbridgecollege.ab.ca Instructions for Demo Open IE and go to the following http://astream.lethbridgecollege.ab.ca Login: vdiguest Password: vdiguest Window will open with available applications We are still sorting out the security requirements for Appstream so we will connect through a VDI console to stream some applications

Researched Institutions North Carolina State University East Carolina University (with NCSU) UC Santa Cruz

Bring Your Own Laptop Student Access to College Software from Home CIT2008 Presentation by: Ross.Harker@LethbridgeCollege.ab.ca Dwayne.Harapnuik@Lethbridgecollege.ab.ca