Stimulus Dollars for VARs: NComputing Tells How
President Obama’s stimulus package has earmarked billions of dollars for schools to pay for educational technology, and this is an incredible chance for schools to expand computer programs and better prepare kids for college and the digital workplace–and for VARs to take advantage of opportunities these funds present.
The funds are short-term windfalls, however, and don’t cover long-term maintenance costs. This has schools facing a dilemma as they make critical decisions on how to best spend their federal stimulus dollars. It’s one thing for schools to buy computers for their classrooms, libraries, and computer labs to give kids more face time with computers. It’s another to afford long-term maintenance-including upgrade costs, electricity, and even salaries for additional IT support staff.
Some VARs have helped schools find a way through this dilemma by expanding computing access with NComputing. The company’s $70 virtual desktops enable up to 11 students to share a single computer simultaneously while reducing maintenance and electrical costs by up to 90 percent, says NComputing.
Tangipahoa Parish in Louisiana is one such school district that decided to spend its stimulus funds on a computer program based on NComputing. In addition to the low cost, using NComputing will spare the district costly electrical upgrades in its aging schools and enable them to use fewer computers (and therefore pay less in support fees) while still expanding computing access. The district can put six computing seats in every classroom without having to hire more staff or rewire schools.
But NComputing’s virtual desktops can be deployed by VARs in any number of applications. Find out more about the technology and its uses in this ChannelPro-SMB podcast.
