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#Parallel access app software

We selected these suppliers because of their focus on Higher Education and the team’s understanding of the IT challenges we face in our market. Parallels Remote Application Server is the final piece of the application delivery puzzle, Coxon adds, allowing the IT team to use existing AppsAnywhere/Cloudpaging deliveries to get any app to any device, a move he describes as “game changing”.

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The result is a combination of software that supports both a new desktop environment at the University Cloudpaging, deployed at Durham by Software2 and which is a way to lets users package and virtualize any Windows software, and a package that from Parallels that in tandem means students and staff can work wherever they choose on their preferred device. The new solution eventually chosen was developed by two partners - Parallels, a specialist in cross-platform solutions and Higher Education software delivery experts Software2. VDI seemed like an obvious way to go, but looking at that in detail meant that there was a huge support overhead for us, quite a lot in terms of gaining knowledge and skills and quite a significant cost as well. just hit the nail on the head in terms of what we wanted to do.

Originally, the University was looking at a Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) approach - but this became less favoured after research indicated, in the words of one of Coxon’s colleagues, Jim Macura, a Project Manager in the Durham central IT team, that such a solution might well be a lot less flexible than was wanted:

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That new way of working, it had been decided, had to be one that would allow Durham students and staff to be able to let them do their work, from wherever they choose, on their preferred device - be that a PC, Windows Surface, Mac, Android to iOS Tablets and phones using native touch gestures, Chromebook, Linux, Xbox One, PS4 in theory, he states, any device with an HTML5 browser.

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But with our new Windows 10 solution, we decided to break the mould and implement a way to make applications user-centric and device agnostic, and offer a consistent, flexible and simple way to access applications. I’ve been here for 21 years, and have implemented desktop solutions from NT4 to the present Windows 10 solutions with almost every variant in-between. The solution also had to be something that was cost-effective, sustainable and secure.”ĭurham University has over 17,000 students and 2,000 staff, he adds - so to provide a truly mobile IT campus experience – independent of users’ device choice – that also ensured that experience would be user-centric and follow them anywhere, he needed a pretty robust and scalable solution:Īs Technical Lead at Durham University, I am responsible for the managed Windows Desktop solutions. We also needed to find a way to deliver applications that was consistent, flexible and simple for the end user.

Students need to be able to use their favourite devices and enjoy the flexibility they need to learn from anywhere without being tied to one single campus location.

We needed to address an out-of-date situation whereby students had to physically go to specific locations on campus, during opening hours, to access the applications needed to do their work on our managed machines. Ask Michael Coxon, Technical Lead (Desktops) at Durham University, one of the UK’s oldest and most prestigious higher education institutions, why he decided to look into a way to enable thousands of students and staff to access to all the applications they need to do their work from anywhere on any device, the answer comes back loud and clear: