The IT requirements of universities are somewhat different than those of businesses. For example, though more and more businesses are moving away from traditional IT infrastructures (on-site PC workstations, servers, locally-installed applications, etc.) and adopting more flexible and mobile IT solutions like IronOrbit Hosted Desktops, most people that work in the private sector still spend almost all of their time at a single location (i.e., their assigned desk at their assigned office). A lot of the students and faculty at universities, in contrast, almost never do their work in the same location from one point in time to another—students, for example, might do some of their work in their classrooms, in one of the university’s computer labs, and in their dorm room or at an off-campus apartment, all in a single day.
How IT Requirements for Universities differ from Businesses
Other ways that the IT requirements or conditions of universities differ from those of businesses include:
- More advanced and diverse applications. At the administrative level, universities have many of the same departments as medium- and large-sized businesses (accounting, HR, marketing, etc.) and therefore require many of the same applications, like QuickBooks, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Exchange. In addition to those basic applications, however, universities also have to support all of the advanced, specialty applications used in faculty research and student training.
- Tighter budgets. Thirty-eight states have lowered their spending on public universities since 2008—12 by more than 10%, nine (including California, Florida, and Massachusetts) by more than 20%, and three (Arizona, New Hampshire, and Louisiana) by more than 30%. Businesses’ IT budgets have declined since the beginning of the Great Recession, too, of course, but public universities have to be careful with every penny they spend since they rely primarily on taxpayer money and because their tuition rates have already been criticized for being too high.
- More effective security. Universities are a favorite target of cyber-thieves because they handle the personal and financial information of tens of thousands of people. In addition, universities are also targeted by hackers interested in their faculties’ scientific and technological research. Unauthorized users try to access the networks of the University of Maryland 12 to 15 million times per day, for example.
Why Hosted Desktop?
The IT requirements of universities and businesses are similar in this respect, however: the best way to satisfy them is to sign up for Hosted Desktops from IronOrbit. To start, IronOrbit Hosted Remote Desktops can be accessed from anywhere with any Internet-connected computer, tablet, or smartphone. That means that students can access their course materials and software from (for example) the classroom, the library, any Wi-Fi-enabled coffee shop, or their dorm room. IronOrbit Virtual Hosted Desktops also support any application; cost only a low, flat, monthly, per-user fee; and are protected with our comprehensive Orbital Security System, which includes firewalls, antivirus, spam blockers, IPS/IDS, patch management, and content filtering.
Universities that have already deployed virtual hosted desktops include:
- Harvard University
- Yale University
- Cornell University
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Claremont McKenna College
- North Carolina State University
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
- Seattle University
Contact IronOrbit at (888) 753-5060 or [email protected] to add your institution’s name to the list by signing up for our Virtual Hosted Desktops today!