When it comes to virtualization, the University System of Maryland (USM) strives to stay ahead of the curve, providing their facilities, faculty and students with the latest cutting-edge technology. That’s why, when they wanted to explore a new method for linking multiple campuses, they turned to Dell for breakthrough thinking and solutions. The new partnership is enabling USM and Dell to jointly explore an effective virtualized computing model, called the Dell Virtual Labs Solution environment.

With over 170,000 undergraduate and graduate students worldwide, over 7,000 full-time faculty and 100 locations in Maryland, the program allows USM’s widespread community access to campus resources from anywhere, at any time and from any device. The program enables users and IT management from USM’s universities to connect to a centralized hub and access to specialized software, bridging the gap between remote locations.

Additional benefits of the program include exposing students to class materials and applications at lower costs; providing a common infrastructure for tutors and virtual interaction; improving data security; and eliminating wasted licensing costs.

USM will also save considerable money, IT management time and campus resources through this initiative. Large campuses can have 100 computer labs onsite, each of which needs regular maintenance and upgrades. With Dell’s virtualized solution, IT managers can handle maintenance from the central data center, resulting in huge cost savings. Furthermore, consolidating computer labs means more space on campus for classrooms, faculty offices and research labs.

Ultimately, the vision is to enable access not just to USM campuses, but to extend access to the larger Maryland community, including K12 schools. This component of the solution is currently in its pilot phase, with testing being done with a small group of universities. The solution has been created ready to scale. Maryland Research and Education Network (MDREN), hosted by USM, will be the organization coordinating the new offerings. MDREN will be facilitating access of this new service to all levels of education in Maryland including K-12, community colleges and private institutions. USM will be unveiling details over the coming months.

Taking a large leap forward, USM’s vision is to lead the charge on preparing students and equipping them with 21st Century skills across the P-20 spectrum. By enabling access to key software, curriculum and technology tools, students – whether a 8th grader, senior in high school or a graduate student – will be able to access the information they need with ease and security. Imagine the possibilities!

A major factor in selecting Dell for this program is our complete offering of end-to-end solutions. USM didn’t want to use multiple vendors to achieve their goals, which would add complexity and inconvenience. “By having single integrated vendor, we know we have a partner that we can work with and that we’re going to find a solution,” says John Seuss, VP for Information Technology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

The goal of the Dell-USM partnership is to ultimately create something that will work not just for local campuses, but broadly for the higher education market. To learn more about the pilot program, check out this video featuring USM’s IT professionals. To find out how Dell’s virtualized solutions could work for you, go to www.dell.com/virtuallabs.