Virtualization | News
Malaysia Deploys Virtual Desktops for Rural Schools
The Malaysian Department of Education has implemented virtual desktop
infrastructure (VDI) to bring high-quality computing and digital education
resources to students in rural and inland areas of the country.
As of March 2014, the country has deployed 25,000
Teradici PCoIP zero clients to 1,250 schools, and the zero clients connect
to a VMware Horizon View
VDI host in a private cloud. The implementation grew out of the
Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2013-2015, which outlines the country's vision
for education from preschool through university and is expected to affect 6
million students at 10,000 schools.
According to VMware and Teradici, the deployment has provided many of the
students with access to desktops, applications and online data for the first
time because the rural and remote areas have limited access to online
connectivity and electricity. The deployment of computing resources to these
schools was made possible through the use of virtual desktop infrastructure,
which required "minimal onsite IT setup or modification to the classroom
environment," according to the companies.
Bitara, the company that
implemented the VDI system, tested VDI using three different protocols: Remote Desktop
Protocol (RDP) from Microsoft, Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) from
Citrix and PC-over-IP (PCoIP) from Teradici. "Within the environmental
conditions in Malaysia, we found that PCoIP was very, very good compared to the
other choices," said Mohd Rizal bin Hilme, CIO of Bitara Induk, in a case study
from Teradici and VMware.
According to Teradici, "when streaming to multiple endpoints, the first two
protocols can congest the network. In contrast, running VDI using the PCoIP
protocol compresses, encrypts and rapidly transports pixels — and Teradici's
PCoIP implementation executes at the chip level."
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].