Inspired by Mis Hermanos en la Tecnología (Ncomputing Spotlight)
A few years ago, some colleagues and I flew down to the Dominican Republic. We had the privileged of working along side some world class technologists from the D.R. installing a computer lab in the Dominican town of Consuelo. We have had the privileged of participating in many other computer labs in the past. However, this one was different. Instead of installing 20-30 individual computers, we specified desktop virtualization technology from Ncomputing.
With this technology a computer lab can run 10 workstations from one PC. As we approach the one year mark in our little Ncomputing experiment, I am so happy to hear that this solution has performed exceptionally. Esperanza International, the organization who sponsored the lab, reports that they have lowered their operating costs for the lab by 60%.
People in the Dominican Republic can experience several lengthy power outages a day. To compensate for this, many organization run expensive generators and install battery powered inverter systems. Using conventional computer technology, a large inverter system can power a 20-30 work station computer lab for up to 7 hours. Using Ncomputing technology labs can run for 12 hours offering uninterrupted class time for students. Ncomputing has been so successful that Esperanza International has started replacing all of their computer labs with this technology.
This November, a small team of technologists comprised of people from Esperanza International and Willow Creek Community Church will be traveling to Costa Rica to replace computers in an existing lab with Ncomputing technology. This time mis hermanos en la technologia will be leading the way. To help us prepare for this journey, mis panas de Esperanza Internacional, my bro Mark Haugen, and I put together a video sharing some of the highlights of how Esparanza has leveraged this technology to connect education to people who are eager to learn.
