7:30am – 9:00am Registration and Coffee

9:00am – 9:30am Virtual Desktop Overview
Speaker: David Blezard, Academic Computing Systems Manager, University of New Hampshire

This presentation is intended to cover the basics of virtualization technologies for the desktop environment, defining terminology, describing available technologies, and making sure that everyone attending the SIG starts off with some solid basics.

9:30am – 10:15am UNH IT Bringing VDI to Campus
Speakers: 
Pete Larimer, Senior IT Manager - Enterprise Computing Group, University of New Hampshire 
Chris Pycko, Information Technologist, University of New Hampshire

How we got started on VDI with minimal budget, time and already full workloads. We’ll start off the conversation with the project management details and work through the technical aspects detailing specifically what we did at UNH and what we learned. Examples include tips for people starting their own projects, creating golden images, issues and problems that came up as well as some things that were successful.

10:15am - 10:30am Break

10:30am – 11:15am The UConn vPC: A Collaborative Story about Desktop Virtualization
Speakers: 
Tony Molloy, Director of Information Technology Services, UConn Libraries
Rick O’Toole, Public Computing Coordinator, UConn Libraries
Ed Swindelles, Manager of Advanced Computing, UConn School of Engineering

The UConn vPC is a collaborative IT project between the UConn School of Business, School of Engineering, and the University Libraries. This project delivered virtual desktops to UConn students beginning in the Fall 2011 semester. Students now have access to UConn licensed applications from their PCs, Macs, and mobile devices from anywhere in the world where they have Internet access. 

This session will talk about the collaboration between the academic units that built a scalable, centralized service and will share usage metrics we’ve gathered since the project began. An overview of the service can be found at http://vpc.uconn.edu

11:15am -12:00pm Thin Clients at Gateway Community College
Speaker: Lawrence Salay, Director of Information Technology, Gateway Community College

The challenge has been how to provide computer access in service areas at a low cost. We looked for a thin client implementation to provide a solution.

The areas were identified as Student Services and the Library. Users need only internet access, printing and at times, basic word processing. Typically, we used recycled PC’s in these areas.

In the presentation, I will talk about the server back end- what was purchased and how we developed this configuration. I will then talk about the deployment with regard to the building of the server cluster and its features, the physical install, and the building of pools and images. This will include the situations that went right and what went wrong. Finally, I will talk about the actual day-to-day operations and what an IT team needs to help them in a thin client implementation.

12:00pm – 1:00pm Lunch

1:00pm – 2:00pm A Strategic Approach to Managing and Implementing the Many Layers of Desktop Virtualization in Education
Speaker: Fabiano Iacusso, Assistant Director of Systems, Technology & Planning, Quinnipiac University

Within our presentation, we will discuss the complex layers of Desktop Virtualization implemented within our University Offices and Learning Spaces. The various layers we will review pertain to our server and storage infrastructure, applications and peripherals involved, including end user devices while touching upon our team-based approach to project analysis and implementation. We will present a Case Study in regards to our approach to Virtualizing a lab environment while articulating our Do’s and Don’ts.
 

2:00pm – 3:00pm Panel - Open forum discussion and Q & A for all of the participants from the audience

3:00pm End