1. technology and computing

CodeBlue
partners
with WINTEC
on VDI project
that promises
maximum return
on investment
“Make once, use many times” is a mantra that WINTEC’s
IT department takes seriously. It is rolling out a VDI project
with help from its Hamilton-based IT services provider,
CodeBlue, which will transform its legacy fleet of ageing
PCs into virtual computers. As a result, its students can
engage with key learning applications but still maintain
the flexibility to operate independent desktops.
“CodeBlue is an agile
and competent provider
and has proven itself by virtue
of its ability to pivot and change
direction when needed.”
Garry Johnston,
IT Director,
WINTEC
CodeBlue partners with WINTEC on VDI project
The Waikato Institute of Technology (WINTEC) has an
ambitious vision for the delivery of learning and business
services. It wants to use leading edge technology to deliver
superior services to more people in the most flexible and
cost effective manner possible. To meet its goal, the tertiary
education institution is embracing cloud and virtualisation
technologies, and has established a partnership with the local
Hamilton branch of New Zealand-owned national IT services
provider CodeBlue.
The recent roll-out of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) technology
is helping WINTEC achieve its objective. Available on over 150
student desktops, with several hundred more due to come online
shortly, the technology is enabling the institute to overcome one
of the key IT challenges tertiary institutions face: the costs involved
in refreshing desktop infrastructure.
WINTEC’s IT director, Garry Johnston, says it is not only the risk
of learning being compromised by the speed and capacity of ageing
PCs that is a problem, but the fact that investment in standard
desktops is inefficient when it comes to meeting the technology
needs of different students.
“One PC is only available for use by
one person at one time and the way
the desktop is set up is specific to
that particular student. That is not
the most effective use of a device.”
Nor does it fit with WINTEC’s
desire to establish a ‘plug-n-play’
environment, says Johnston.
VDI provides students with a modern and high performing desktop
while on campus, but enables that capacity to be leveraged across
more than one device at one time.
“That is the advantage of managing it all from the server,”
says Johnston. “Students log in on the old PCs but the desktop
image and all the programmes are run from the central server.
It simplifies desktop management because you don’t have
to run around attending to each individual PC.”
Deploying a virtual desktop helps WINTEC overcome the challenges
of the traditional server-based thin client environment where one
server image has to be standardised and used in only one way.
“Using VDI, students can still experiment with their own desktops
and run them independently. They can install software, change
it to suit their working method and do everything they would
on a normal desktop PC, but they are doing it without impacting
anyone else on the network.”
Johnston says the benefits of the VDI project are manifold.
“We have reduced both our capital and operational expenses
by no longer having to purchase and maintain
individual PCs, the VDI provides us with an
“Our core mission is to make our community
alternative capability for disaster recovery,
stronger with work-ready graduates. It is
and it has allowed us to introduce green
important for us that we do that using local
technology in the form of new ultra thin
partners and by developing a local technology
terminals that get all their power simply by
community. CodeBlue is very much part of that.” being plugged into the network.”
Garry Johnston, IT Director, WINTEC
“We run an open network and try to make the environment
as engaging and enabling as possible. Having to download
software on a local device, such as a PC, in order for a student
to access the key learning applications is restrictive.”
Johnston says deploying VDI technology fits in with WINTEC’s
‘bring your own device’ strategy and enables it to deliver a desktop
that provides easy access to learning or teaching resources.
“Rather than a desktop for the sake of it, we use VDI
to present different environments to meet the different
learning needs of students.”
With the help of CodeBlue, which provided project management
and technical engineering services, WINTEC has repurposed its
slow performing fleet of PCs to run as modern high tech assets.
In the process it has turned the need to spend around $1000
per unit on replacement PC costs into a meager $400 per unit
investment that gives each machine a longer shelf life.
“We have a strong bias toward investing in technologies that
enable us to do something once and leverage it multiple times,”
says Johnston.
WINTEC’s ambition to leverage technology
for cost and flexibility advantages has
seen it embrace the cloud. It accesses all its production,
test and development server needs as Infrastructure-as-a-Service,
consuming storage and computer power on a month‑by‑month
basis. It is also signed up to Software-as-a-Service and its
cloud‑based provisioning includes a service management solution,
online survey tools and a number of key Microsoft applications
including CRM, SharePoint and Office 365.
“Our vision is to continue down the cloud path and CodeBlue
is helping us on that journey. When you move down this route
you need to have a competent and agile services provider.”
Johnston says all WINTEC’s projects are benefits driven,
and for that reason it is not always clear at the outset exactly how
something is going to be achieved. That’s why an external provider
that is comfortable dealing with ambiguity is so important.
“We start with the goals we want to realise, not with a particular
technology. CodeBlue has proven itself by virtue of its ability
to pivot and change direction when needed. Like all good
partnerships it is a give and take relationship. They learn from
the ideas we have and share those with other customers in the
community. Equally, CodeBlue comes to the table with its own
innovations that give us competitive advantage.”
About CodeBlue
CodeBlue is a locally-owned IT services company with over 100 staff working from offices in Auckland,
Hamilton, Tauranga, Hawkes Bay, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Invercargill. CodeBlue
offers IT managed services for a fixed monthly price, optimised for mid-sized companies and organisations.
CodeBlue’s value proposition is to help customers extract maximum value from their IT investment by
delivering the most cost-effective IT infrastructure: one which is tightly managed through each phase of the
IT infrastructure lifecycle. This includes strategy, procurement, implementation, service and replacement.
Backing up CodeBlue’s technical consultants out in the field is a highly sophisticated support infrastructure,
including helpdesk and remote monitoring and diagnosis software tools. www.codeblue.co.nz
For sales enquiries, call 0508 IT service (0508 48 73 78). For Hamilton Office phone +64 7 838 9390.
The new wave in IT service