Monday, January 27, 2014

Software : Sponsored: Learning the easy way

Software : Sponsored: Learning the easy way

Sponsored: Learning the easy way

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Sponsored: Learning the easy way

It's not every day that you can reboot an entire institution, but the Noel-Baker School in Derby, UK was able to do just that: its beautiful £40 million new campus gave it an opportunity to rethink how schools should look and work - and to slash its IT management bills by a whopping 50 percent.

As the school's network manager Lee Jepson explains, IT "plays such a fundamental role in education nowadays" - particularly so at the Noel-Baker School, whose in-house IT team also helps other schools and local businesses. "We really wanted this to be a shop window for what IT can do in schools and to provide greater productivity for businesses," Jepson says.

The school already had an excellent relationship with its IT supplier Dell, with Dell PowerEdge servers networked to a combination of OptiPlex desktops and Latitude Laptops. Jepson was impressed by their reliability and flexibility, but he also wanted a more efficient way to manage them - so he turned to Dell's KACE appliances, which delivered more functionality and significant time savings in patching and deployment. Jepson also specified ultra-fast 10-gigabit Dell Networking 8024 switches, two Dell EqualLogic PS6510X storage arrays and PowerEdge servers running Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V, a virtualised environment that delivers all of the school's applications.

Automatic for the people

With the back-end systems in place, Jepson turned his attention to the most important part of the school's IT: the people who would use it. A brand new campus meant that Jepson could work from a clean slate, and that enabled him to come up with something very different and very effective.

Jepson created "learning plazas" around the school featuring OptiPlex desktops for students to use during breaks, replaced the library with a desktop and laptop-stuffed resource centre, and took care of classrooms using a mix of desktops and Latitude laptops on wheeled trolleys. The choice of Windows Server software also enables the school to deliver remote access both for students, who can complete coursework from home, and for teachers, who can access their essential applications and files from anywhere.

It's an ambitious project. Has it worked? Lee Jepson is delighted. "It has freed us to add more value to the school," he says. Teachers no longer need to spend valuable time setting up and tweaking IT equipment before lessons can commence, and new software can be introduced into the teaching environment more quickly than ever before. Students are more engaged with their work thanks to faster access and up-to-date applications.

There's a financial component too. The combination of simplified storage and server management has reduced management time by a whopping 50%, speeding up support responses and freeing up time for the IT team's outsourcing operations. And thanks to the KACE appliances, much of the drudgery of IT admin is now entirely automated, with the appliances taking care of software distribution, patching, operating system installation and system recovery without disrupting anybody's day. If this were an exam, the Noel-Baker School would get a well-deserved "A".

Updated: Google and Samsung form landmark patent alliance to aid fight against iOS

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Updated: Google and Samsung form landmark patent alliance to aid fight against iOS

Perceived tensions between Google and Samsung had threatened to derail the dominance of Android, but a landmark patent agreement, announced this weekend, seems to have put all that nonsense to bed.

The Korean hardware giant confirmed a wide-ranging ten-year licensing alliance, which includes all existing patents and those filed by both companies over the next decade.

Update: Samsung's making friends all over the place. It has now sealed a licensing deal with Ericsson, agreeing to pay around $650m upfront and a regular on-going fee to allow it to use some of Ericsson's patented tech in Samsung phones.

Original story continues...

The news comes following countless damaging legal battles raged around the world where Samsung and Apple have bickered around the world, often related to Samsung's use of the Android operating system.

Despite Google and Samsung's previous reluctance to take action against each other, the agreement seems like a symbolic amnesty in the hope that the tide of suit and counter suit might subside.

Better friends than enemies

The agreement also places Google firmly in Samsung's corner as the pair continue to battle iOS in the smartphone and tablet arena.

"This agreement with Google is highly significant for the industry," said Dr. Seungho Ahn, the Head of Samsung's Intellectual Property Center, before taking a swipe at Apple.

"Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes," he said.

Google's Allen Lo added: "By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation."

Reports over the last few years have highlighted the threat Samsung poses to Android with its ever-increasing market monopoly.

Many observers have suggested that Samsung could use its power to influence the future of the operating system, but it appears that both companies have decided, for now, that they're better friends than enemies.

Second screen app GetGlue becoming tvtag in big update this week

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Second screen app GetGlue becoming tvtag in big update this week

If you're not a GetGlue user, you've surely heard of it when folks use the second screen app to check into their favourite shows and share it on Facebook or Twitter.

Now the company, which has around 4.5m registered users on iOS, Android and Windows Phone, is rebranding to the much more descriptive TVTag following its recent acquisition by i.TV.

In an email sent out to users, the company explained the transition and also promised a big update this week which "will incorporate a ton of new features."

The so-called 'Foursquare of television' will change its branding from blue to red, if that sort of thing interests you.

Shared vision

In the email, the company wrote: "As many of you are aware, this update has been a long time coming. In fact, when GetGlue joined i.TV in November, one of the reasons we were all so excited about both companies coming together is that both teams shared a vision for how to make watching TV more fun and interesting.

"The update to GetGlue you'll see next week is a culmination of a lot of hard work and your feedback. We can't wait to share it with you!"

Are you a GetGlue use excited for the new features? What would you like to see included? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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