Lodge Park College makes the grade with Dell and Windows 7

Some people say that today’s students have it easy, but you only need to spend a day at any secondary school in the country to see that this is not true. However, utilising the latest technology, like Windows 7 can make a positive difference to school life. It won’t make exams any easier, but it can make learning, simpler, faster and more enjoyable.

Logo1 The Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP) gave Dell consultants an opportunity to help Lodge Park Technology College – a technical college for 11-19 year olds, and a Dell Technology Trust Partner. As a technology specialist, Lodge Park’s students are highly IT literate and a cutting edge, progressive IT infrastructure is essential.

To stay at the top of their game the IT team wanted to move to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. They also saw an opportunity to perform a complete overhaul on their environment, including, reducing energy consumption, cutting their server footprint and adding flexibility to the IT network.

As with all Windows 7 deployments, there was an immediate effect on the IT department, but also on the day-to-day life for students. Stephen Peverett, Network Manager at Lodge Park explains: “The students love Windows 7 – the Aero Peek and Aero Snap features are particularly popular and teachers have responded to the faster access to files and folders that Windows 7 affords when linked to Windows Server 2008 R2.”

Going further, Virtualization and Windows Server 2008 R2, has provided the school with a perfect opportunity to teach students about green IT. Students engaged in project work on energy consumption are invited into the datacentre, to clearly see how the new environment has reduced the school’s energy consumption.

SDC10052As for the IT team, the simplified imaging available in a virtualized Windows 7 environment will save the school 30 days of IT team time every year and cut costs by up to £4,000. “We can do more maintenance during the day and not out of school hours. In addition, as the school’s needs change, we can easily add virtual machines. We estimate a saving of £4,000 a year on hardware.”

At Lodge Park, this adds up to a world of new opportunities. Peverett says: “The truth is we’ve only just begun. We want to explore options such as Intel vPro technology and applications requiring a 64-bit operating system – a world of functionality only available with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.”

To read more on Lodge Park Technology College, click here.

If you're interested in more information your company's migration to the Windows 7 environment, take a look at IT Expert Voice, where best practices and news related to Windows 7 in the enterprise is discussed.

About the Author: Kathy Mahady