Cambridge Judge Business School Expands BYOD Support with Parallels RAS
The Customer: Cambridge Judge Business School
Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS) is one of the world’s most respected business schools. Set in the heart of the University of Cambridge in England, the prestigious business school is consistently ranked among the top in the world by Bloomberg, the Financial Times, Business Insider, US News & World Report, and Forbes magazine.
In addition to education, CJBS is recognized for its leadership role in research. As a fully integrated department at one of the best universities in the world, CJBS is able to host one of the largest concentrations of interdisciplinary business and management research activity in Europe. There are around 80 academic staff, representing all continents, and 420 students enrolled at CJBS.
The Challenge: Deliver education applications to remote mobile devices
In 2015, CJBS used a straight-VPN solution, but the IT team knew the institution should have Terminal Server access. CJBS wanted to publish classic Windows desktop applications, such as Microsoft Excel and Word, as well as IBM SPSS software to enable more effective campus-independent teaching methods. However, the IT staff used to spend a lot of time helping students configure certain programs on their devices.
Students and teachers at the business education institution were using PCs, Mac® computers, iPad® and iPhone® devices, and Android tablets and phones as personal devices—and they wished to continue using their personal devices to access virtual learning applications. This meant that the IT team required a virtualization solution that met the mobility needs of faculty and students.
Basically, the CBJS IT department needed a virtualization solution to create flexible, mobile-ready virtual learning workspaces and consolidate the IT infrastructure, making it easier to secure, scale, and maintain.
The Solution: Parallels RAS centralizes IT, simplifies access to learning applications
When Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS) was deployed at CJBS, head of IT Paul Miller knew it was “the perfect solution.” Using Parallels RAS with a VPN, the business school was now able to provide secure, easy-to-use application publishing to any of their staff and students’ personal devices.
At CJBS, incoming students frequently have Mac computers and don’t want to buy a PC. CJBS now easily accommodates the school’s plentiful amount of Mac users, delivering them instant, reliable access to Windows desktop software from their laptops. Not only that, but Parallels RAS has allowed the CJBS IT team to deploy a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution as well, delivering students and faculty access to easy-to-manage virtual machines hosted on the server.
The Benefits: Reduce IT hours, deploy BYOD support with great mobile experience
By using Parallels RAS, CJBS significantly reduced the hours required by IT staff to set up and support students and teachers who needed to access learning material on their devices. Miller said that the IT team can now streamline the process of loading applications for the 50 students with Mac computers.
Parallels RAS also allowed the school to extend bring-your-own-device (BYOD) support for more devices without needing to touch them or interact in any way with the operating systems. In addition to students, Parallels RAS helped the IT team provide simple, remote access for staff. Importantly, students and faculty were highly impressed by the great mobile experience for phones and tablets, which made classwork easier and lowered stress levels on a daily basis.
“Parallels RAS makes it simple for our IT admins to support any device that students and teachers prefer to use and saves us hours of setup time. The Parallels RAS mobile client for iOS and Android enables our students and teachers to be truly productive on the go or at home.” – Paul Miller Head of IT, Cambridge Judge Business School
Parallels RAS is an incredibly comprehensive, highly affordable application and desktop delivery solution that allows educational institutions to achieve a secure, mobile-capable campus for staff, students, and faculty. It provides students and faculty on-the-go access to coursework, training environments, and educational applications from any device—even off campus.
What Parallels will help educational institutions achieve:
- Educational Windows applications available on any device
- A comprehensive application delivery solution with no need for third-party add-ons
- Empowered learning through a mobile workspace
- Protected student and staff data with encryption protocols and advanced filtering
- Improved student and faculty productivity with on-the-go access to learning resources
