Virtualização de aplicativos para educação, a maneira inteligente
A Inuvika reduz o custo e a complexidade do fornecimento de aplicativos virtualizados para aprimorar a experiência de ensino presencial e a distância
Whitepaper de Peter von Oven
Digital Workspace Consultant and SME
and author of (2024) "Learning VMware Workstation Pro"
Nova York: Apress
Introduction
A oferta de aprendizagem mudou significativamente desde a pandemia. Embora a aprendizagem baseada em tecnologia digital já estivesse causando um enorme impacto na forma como a educação é oferecida atualmente, o único problema central que permanece é a natureza estática de sua oferta.
Os dispositivos eram, e ainda são, muito baseados em sala de aula. Isso significa que os alunos e a equipe de professores têm acesso total à variedade de aplicativos educacionais na sala de aula física. No entanto, ter acesso fora da sala de aula ainda é um desafio. Isso ficou ainda mais evidente quando escolas, faculdades e universidades de todo o mundo passaram a usar o aprendizado remoto.
Embora a maioria dos alunos e professores tivesse acesso a algum tipo de dispositivo conectado, embora uma plataforma de reuniões on-line permitisse que eles participassem das atividades em sala de aula, o que eles não tinham era acesso aos aplicativos usados em sala de aula.
Portanto, o principal desafio agora é gerenciar os custos e os orçamentos para fornecer tecnologia da informação dentro e fora da sala de aula.
In today's connected world, there is even more pressure to deliver services given that students are now very tech-savvy when it comes to accessing apps and data.
As instituições de ensino também precisam competir por alunos para serem lucrativas. A capacidade de escalonar e de oferecer plataformas tecnológicas modernas para o aprendizado atrairá mais alunos.
Como oferecer um nível melhor de envolvimento para a experiência geral de aprendizagem com orçamentos mínimos e menos pessoal administrativo de TI?
Este resumo de soluções discutirá como a Inuvika resolve esses desafios, reduzindo os custos e a complexidade.
The majority of students and teaching staff, around 80% to 90%, will just need access to their applications and data.
This means that the cost and management overhead of having full-blown desktop PCs and the complexity of keeping up with the operating system maintenance requirements can now be easily removed. Desktops can be replaced by thin client devices, that act as terminals for accessing applications within the classroom.
If the PCs are still relatively new, then they can be upcycled and turned into thin clients, therefore, extending the lifecycle until the device physically fails, while removing the burden of managing a local operating system. With application virtualization software, applications hosted securely in a local data center or hosted centrally by a university tech department, an academy trust or school district, they can be accessed both in the classroom and outside the classroom, thus extending the learning experience.
Apresentando o Inuvika OVD Enterprise
Founded in 2014, Inuvika and its OVD Enterprise solution, simplifies the delivery of applications to students and teaching staff.
This simplified approach to virtualized application delivery enables people to have access to all of their Windows and Linux apps on pretty much any device you can think of. Whether it’s an iPhone, Android device, Chromebook, Apple Mac or, of course, Windows and Linux desktops and thin client devices. You can also just use a browser if you so wish.
Built on Linux, with Inuvika’s resource containerization technology, OVD Enterprise allows data centers to run more efficiently, using less infrastructure capacity, lowering their carbon footprint and with a simplicity of admin that is not available on other products. All of this with a cost reduction of up to 50% when compared to Citrix or VMware.
Intelligent Application Brokering and Delivery
Inuvika employs a Linux-based appliance that takes on the role of a broker. This simply authenticates user logins and delivers the apps as allocated to a user or user group. The apps are installed on Windows (RDSH) servers or Linux app servers and are automatically recognized by the Inuvika OVD broker. It is then simply a case of allocating those apps to users or user groups (year groups or subject classes) enabling them to launch their own unique and secure session of the app.
User data, settings and other profile information get stored on a dedicated file server, and secure, two factor authentication is native and out-of-the-box. External access via the internet is easily achieved using the OVD Secure Gateway appliance.
If you want to scale up the number of students you want to deliver applications to, then simply add additional application servers as required. The same is true if you want to enable high availability to mitigate against downtime. Just add an OVD Session Manager and a load balancer into the mix.
Seamless Learning Experience
Above all else, any solution that is used within education needs to make the interaction or experience both simple and intuitive. One of Inuvika’s unique features makes this easy. Students are presented with a familiar look and feel.
Once you are logged in using the Inuvika client in application mode, users can seamlessly access their applications provided by OVD Enterprise as if they are natively installed on that device. When the user launches the app, it not only opens and runs as normal, it looks exactly the same as the version the user is accustomed to using. That’s because it is the same application, now running remotely and delivered by Inuvika OVD.
Reduced Infrastructure and Costs
Budgets in education have always been squeezed. Often, schools and colleges have to look to fundraising efforts in order to bring technology into the classroom along with the infrastructure to support it.
On the subject of the supporting infrastructure, typically a school or college building IT department isn’t designed to host racks of servers. In some environments the computer room is nothing more than a cupboard!
Inuvika's application virtualization software requires a minimal amount of infrastructure to deliver a fully featured application delivery platform. Just the broker(s) and app servers are what are required.
If you already have a virtual infrastructure platform in place then, as the Inuvika broker runs as a virtual Linux appliance, you might not need any additional hardware.
OVD only requires RDS CALs and Windows Server Licenses for your application servers (if they are Windows), so there is no need for extra licensing for back-end servers.
When it comes to the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), taking into account servers, Microsoft licensing, secure gateways, subscriptions and support cost , Inuvika’s TCO is often less than 50% of Citrix or other Citrix competitors.
For the IT admin team, management of the Inuvika solution is via an easy–to-use, web-based admin console. With no OS images to continually patch and update, it frees up the admin team to get on with their day jobs.
Building a Platform to deliver Apps-as-a-Service
Delivering applications-as-a-service is a growing technology. In fact, it is already likely that SaaS-based apps, such as Satchel One, are already being used within your environment.
Inuvika makes it easy for schools to deliver apps centrally. So, if you are part of a university or a group of schools, then the IT department could host apps for all of its faculties or schools. Or, Inuvika partners could host the apps for them as a managed service.
In either case, Inuvika enables multi-tenancy, with support for multidomain environments and tenant isolation. It is achieved with just a click of the mouse. You can add and separate faculties and Schools and allows them, via role-based access, to manage their own apps and data
Hardware Device Support for GPU and USB Devices
Given the diversity of subjects within education, there are often lots of different peripheral hardware requirements. Things such as piano-style keyboards for music lessons, 3D printers for the design department, multimedia headsets, or just simple USB memory sticks.
This peripheral hardware requirement is often seen to be a roadblock when looking to adopt some form of remote application delivery solution. However, it is not a problem with Inuvika.
The Inuvika solution enables USB peripherals to be connected locally to your device but redirected so that they appear connected to the remote application for a seamless experience.
Applications can also be configured to take advantage of hardware-based graphic cards, within the application servers, and, therefore be able to deliver the hardware accelerated graphics required by 3D graphics and design applications.
Sustainable App Delivery & Devices
A Inuvika desempenha um papel fundamental na criação de uma solução sustentável, reduzindo os requisitos de infraestrutura.
Isso significa que é necessário menos hardware, há um menor consumo de energia associado e, consequentemente, uma menor pegada de carbono.
But sustainability goes way beyond just the infrastructure and encompasses the entire solution from end-to-end.
Inuvika is a key part to a bigger eco-system with the OVD client certified with several innovative edge device vendors.
These vendors provide low-powered devices such as a Raspberry Pi’s to connect to applications. Other partners offer the ability to repurpose or recycle existing hardware, whether old or new, into edge devices.
Esses dispositivos de borda reaproveitados prolongam a vida útil de um dispositivo, substituindo o sistema operacional por um sistema operacional criado especificamente para o fornecimento de aplicativos, em vez de enviá-los para um aterro sanitário.
Essa abordagem de ecossistema garante que a sustentabilidade seja alcançada em todos os elementos da solução de fornecimento de aplicativos.
Take the Next Steps …
See how Inuvika can deliver applications without the high cost and complexity of other solutions, yet still deliver the best student experience possible. Contact the Inuvika team today for a demonstration and guided tour:
Alternatively, sign up for a free trial and see how you can deliver Windows and Linux virtual apps and desktops to any device. The trial will come preloaded with Windows and Linux applications that you can access on any device through a browser or client app. You can also try the Webbased Admin console to see how easy OVD is to manage.