District Administration - February 2012 - (Page 2)

TechSavers Guide CDI stronger than ever thanks to Fiddlehead Dear Educators, I’m pleased to officially welcome Fiddlehead, Inc., to CDI’s corporate family. Fiddlehead, a New York-based company of programmers who make fantastic software specifically for school tech coordinators, will allow us to help you save even more time and money. Though we’ve been known for years as the hardware people for schools looking for the highest quality refurbished computers, we’ve always kept an eye out for something else we can offer—something that would make us more of a complete solution provider. When we discovered Fiddlehead’s suite of eight tools, it seemed like a perfect fit. Before jumping into the partnership, we spent four months assessing, enhancing and running the software, and we field-tested it with some of our existing customers. I can’t stress enough how overwhelmingly positive the response was—so positive that we kept checking with users to make sure Fiddlehead was as revolutionary as they said it was. It turns out they weren’t kidding. The software saves technologists vast amounts of time by giving them the ability to remote control functions that previously required manual operation. It saves money because the Fiddlehead package includes many programs that you would normally pay for separately. Finally, we’ll be able to offer you the same strong service we always have, plus some. To quote a client who’s used CDI and Fiddlehead: “Those are two companies that are loyal to their customers.” We think you’ll agree. To learn more about our great new partner, read on. Sincerely, Saar Pikar CEO, CDI Computers SponSored Supplement Meet David Peterson, creator and founder of Fiddlehead CDI’s new software partner makes life simpler for everyone David Peterson is the chief technology officer for Fiddlehead, a young company merging with CDI this month. Peterson has been developing the Fiddlehead software for most of his 21-year working life. What does the Fiddlehead software do? Fiddlehead is software that creates up to four virtual computers from one CPU. With Fiddlehead, up to four students can work independently on the computer, each with their own monitor, keyboard, mouse and operating system. “Technologists can accomplish more during a workday.” How is Fiddlehead different than using a central server or thin client? Thin clients don’t offer real PC performance because the server is remote from the user and performance suffers, especially multimedia. With Fiddlehead, the multimedia is perfect, which is important in schools. Also, because each “seat” has its own operating system and its own set of applications there are no problems with multiple users sharing the same file, as is the case with thin clients. Besides turning one computer into four, what else does Fiddlehead do? It allows schools to unify and manage their diverse collection of computers with centrally controlled operating system images. It allows a tech coordinator to install, update, lock/unlock, replace or repair the entire operating system and software collection on any computer from a central location with browser-based, drag-and-drop functionality. Why is this important to schools? School districts buy new computers all the time, so there is typically a wide assortment of brands and models sprinkled across schools. Ensuring image consistency among all computers is important for users and network administrators. The ability to remotely clone an image onto a collection of different computer models is very valuable. How does Fiddlehead differ from other software for managing operating systems? Our product is one unified enterprise-wide product. It allows technology coordinators complete flexibility to manage their enterprise systems any way they want by giving them complete control over every machine from a central location. For instance, if a student downloads a file that disables a computer with a virus, the machine’s infected operating system can simply be replaced with a clone of the master image, all from the technologist’s office. Are there other features that would help a school district technologist? Yes, from the same remote console you can clone operating systems, lock a computer so a student can’t introduce a virus, start and shutdown computers, distribute and install applications via virtual CDs and conduct other PC management tasks—all either manually or on an automated schedule. No other single software program provides this level of enterprise-level control. How do customers save money by using Fiddlehead? We estimate a savings of about 40 percent because the customer can get away with buying one CPU instead of four. And by simplifying the management of imaging and operating systems, fewer technical work hours are needed.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - February 2012

District Administration - February 2012
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Conversations
Product Focus
What Can U.S. Schools Learn From Foreign Counterparts?
A New Prescription for Fighting Drug Abuse
The Game Changer
The Legal Implications of Surveillance Cameras
CIO News
Mobile Devices Drive Creative Instruction
Products
Crisis Response
Professional Opinion
Problem/Solution
New Directions

District Administration - February 2012