Microsoft Office Professional 2010 NSW seeks to bu

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By Brett Winterford on Sep 23, 2009 twelve:36 PM
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The world's "most hostile computing environment".
The NSW Division of Education is making use of asset-tracking software program, RFID tags, and BIOS-embedded filtering smarts to roll out 240,000 netbook computer systems into what CIO Stephen Wilson calls "the most hostile surroundings you'll be able to roll computers into" - the neighborhood substantial college.

The rollout of Lenovo netbooks, funded under the Federal Government's Digital Training Revolution initiative, can be a massive logistical and IT safety challenge, along with the solution Wilson and his staff has set with each other to fix these problems could properly be relevant to any company IT department.

Over four many years, some 240,000 Lenovo netbooks will probably be provided to college students in year nine. The netbooks could be kept till year 12, or permanently need to the student finish their studies on the college. Netbooks will also be becoming offered to teachers.

To consider receipt of the netbooks,Office 2007 Key, pupils and parents are asked to indication forms during which they acknowledge their obligation to acquire treatment in the machines and use them appropriately.

They are armed with the enterprise version from the new Windows 7 working program,Microsoft Office Professional 2010, Microsoft Office, the Adobe CS4 innovative suite, Apple iTunes,Office 2010 Download, and content geared to students. Even though the netbooks are loaded with several numerous bucks of application, 2GB RAM and a six-hour battery, the cost to the NSW Section of Education is less than $500 a unit.

Underneath the covers of the netbooks - and within the network that controls them - lies a great deal more smarts to ensure that the total cost of ownership of each machine does not blow out.

Wilson said that while private schools and other states have taken a "carte blanche" approach to handing out laptops as part in the Digital Training Revolution, the DET rollout is "among the more systematic, automated and paperless" projects ever embarked upon.

Security smarts

At the physical layer, each netbook is password-protected and embedded with tracking computer software on the BIOS level from the machine.

That is administered through an enterprise services bus, which also connects the Remedy suite for asset management, Active Directory for authentication and Aruba's Airwave for wireless network management.

If a netbook were to be stolen or sold, the section can remotely disable it more than the network. Even if the hard drive in the machine was swapped out or the working system wiped, it would be useless to unauthorised users.

Already, it has noted the loss or damage of just six netbooks out of the 20,Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus,000 rolled out since August - and have tracked a teacher using their device on a field trip in New Zealand.

While there is a serial number and barcode on each computer, the department said that thieves or college students might be able to remove them. To combat this, it is employing passive RFID chips on every machine that will enable them to be identified "even if they were dropped in a bathtub".

Being passive, an RFID reader needs to be within close proximity with the device to read it. (Active RFID transmitted a signal back to base.)

The section used the AppLocker functionality within Windows 7 to dictate which applications are installed.

Web access on the netbooks is filtered according to a corporate security policy (using McAfee's SmartFilter technology) plus an additional SOCKS-based proxy client,Office 2007, which provides web filtering with the network layer.

The devices also use Microsoft's Forefront Antivirus technology.

Upgrades

With such a huge fleet of computer systems in the hands of students, Wilson said it would be "unrealistic" for the section to offer technical support for software program applications.

The netbooks were built so that the section can remotely upgrade and patch the devices above a wireless network.

It used Microsoft's System Centre Configuration Manager tool to distribute application down to devices.

The update service switches off once a university student finishes yr twelve.

Wilson said there was no way such a large fleet of machines could be managed at such low cost without the smarts embedded within Microsoft's new running program.

"There was no way we could do any of this on XP," he said. "Windows seven nailed it for us."