Bangkok--14 Oct--Marketwire
NComputing Wins Bid to Provide Computing Access to 1.8 Million Schoolchildren in an Indian State Government's Massive Educational Computing Initiative
State of Andhra Pradesh Deploys 50,000 NComputing Seats in 5,000 State Schools
NComputing, the leading provider of desktop virtualization software and hardware, today announced that its low-cost solution was chosen to supply a massive, 5,000-school educational computing initiative in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The initiative will provide computing access to 1.8 million schoolchildren. Andhra Pradesh is the largest and most populous state in South India, with a population of 76 million and 1.8 million schoolchildren in its government school system. Andhra Pradesh will build computer labs in 5,000 schools totaling 50,000 computing seats over the coming few months. The win marks the largest single deployment of NComputing's solution in India. The decision to deploy NComputing's low-cost and eco-friendly solution establishes the government of Andhra Pradesh as an innovator in educational computing and provides a blueprint for other governments and institutions considering similar projects.
By leveraging NComputing, the government will save $20 million in up-front costs and ongoing support costs. The government will also reduce the electricity consumption of its school computer labs by over 90% compared to a traditional all-PC solution. "NComputing is proud to have been chosen by Andhra Pradesh to fulfill its vision to improve learning and literacy rates throughout the state," said Stephen Dukker, chairman and CEO of NComputing. "At about $70 per seat, our solution is the ideal platform to enable schools, businesses, and governments to better leverage their PC investment. We are the world leader in desktop virtualization and the scale of this deployment further extends our leadership position."
The NComputing solution is based on a simple fact: today's PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of applications only use a small fraction of the computer's capacity. NComputing technology creates multiple virtual desktops on a single PC so many users can tap the unused capacity and share it as if each person had their own computer. Andhra Pradesh chose the NComputing X300 solution, which enables up to seven users to simultaneously share one PC. Other NComputing products enable up to 31 users on a high-end PC and hundreds on high-end servers.
The computing labs will be used to teach computer skills and office productivity (spreadsheets, word processing) as well as subjects like reading and math. The entire system will run on the Microsoft Windows Server operating system and use Microsoft Office Suite. "India holds a strong position in the knowledge economy today due to the country's consistent investment in education over the years," said Javier Arrupea Gitlin, director, Microsoft Unlimited Potential Group. "In India and around the globe, Microsoft is committed to enabling affordable access to computing for education. Through Microsoft's Unlimited Potential commitment, we are continually looking for innovative and affordable technology solutions that can sustain social and economic progress. Initiatives such as this announced today that leverage the value to educational computing provided by the Windows Server platform represent yet another solution that can help move us towards this goal."
The project is based on an interesting and innovative outsourcing model. The Andhra Pradesh government will outsource the entire project for five years to leading educational IT companies, including Educomp, Everonn, NIIT, and Social Computers. The model is referred to as Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) and requires the outsourcers to install, staff, and manage the labs. This arrangement helps ensure that the labs are installed quickly and performance benchmarks are met. The five-year period also enables school staff to develop their own competencies in managing the labs and computer-aided teaching.
The NComputing solution has also received awards for being the greenest computing technology on earth. The technology uses just 1 watt of electricity (compared to 110 watts or more for stand-alone PCs), and as a result, electricity bills go down, as do carbon dioxide emissions and e-waste.
NComputing's technology is used by 20,000 organizations in more than 90 countries. In the United States, NComputing has been deployed by over 4,000 school districts in classrooms, computer labs, and libraries. Although smaller in scale than Andhra Pradesh, school districts in North America face many of the same challenges including tight budgets, demand for wider computing access, limited IT support staff, and a desire to use "green" technology. "Our students are learning about global warming and increasingly engaged in school initiatives to lower the carbon footprint," said Richard Potter of Medicine Hat School District. "We rebuilt our computer lab with NComputing and a few PCs and the students planted a hundred trees to create a carbon-neutral computer lab."
NComputing recently announced that it had shipped a million units and is working with leading partners to bring the power of NComputing technology to school computerization initiatives around the world.
About NComputing, Inc.
Winner of the Wall Street Journal's Technology Innovation Award, NComputing, Inc. was founded with the goal of making desktop computing affordable for everyone. Headquartered in Redwood City, CA, NComputing is a privately held virtualization software and hardware company. The company's patented technology drastically lowers desktop computing costs, improves manageability, and reduces both energy consumption and e-waste.
Media Contacts:
Renee Deger
GlobalFluency
(650) 433-4153
David Rand
NComputing, Inc.
(650) 517-5806
drand at ncomputing dot com
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