Ivanti Success Story: Granite School District

Granite School District
Automating Network Tasks Saves Time, Money and Keeps
High-Tech Classrooms Operational
PROFILEThe second largest school district in the stateof Utah
INDUSTRY

Education
NETWORK

32,000 Windows PCs
3,000 Macs■■ 200 VMware and Hyper-V servers■■ 90 locations

Overview
Granite School District is spread across 257 square miles in central Salt Lake County,Utah. With 67,600 students enrolled in programs ranging from kindergarten to 12th
grade, it is the second largest school district in the state with a 2014-15 school year
budget of $588.8 million. The district employs 8,766 faculty and staff, and operates eighthigh schools, 16 junior high schools, 62 elementary schools, and four specialty schools.

■■■■SOLUTIONS■■■■

Ivanti Management Suite
Ivanti Security Suite

KEY BENEFITS

Images reduced from 2,000 to three
Patching time reduced from 900 hours perweek to 10 per month■■ Software distribution servers reduced from90 to four■■ Peer-to-peer sharing keeps bandwidthavailable■■ Remote support nearly eliminates drive time,increases support time■■ Power management feature triggers $207,000
rebate, saves on electricity each year■■■■

Challenge: Ensure Technology in Classrooms Is Always Available
To say that teaching cannot take place without technology is a given in today’s schools.
According to the latest U.S. Department of Education statistics, 97 percent of teachers in
the country have one or more computers in their classrooms, and a large percentage haveaccess to interactive whiteboards and other high-tech teaching tools.1 “Over the last fiveyears,” said Mark Carpenter, Desktop Management Engineer for Granite School District,“nearly every key teaching system in our district has become computer-based. And most of
the teaching in our math and science classes is done over the Internet, so if a computer is not
functioning or if the Internet is down, no teaching takes place. It’s my job to keep all systems
up and running so the core mission of the district, teaching students, is accomplished.”
Keeping those systems up and running was once difficult and time consuming. “Before,we used an automated tool to reimage the PCs,” said Carpenter. “But we had to maintain
2,000 separate images, and the tool required that we store information at each site. As aresult, we had to assign 10 network engineers to manage our reimaging services.”

Worm Shuts Down a High School 10 Times in One Month
For patching, the district used the Windows automatic update feature and installed
non-Windows patches manually. “Each site was responsible for patching,” explained
Carpenter. “But on too many machines, the Windows update feature wasn’t even turnedon. And non-Windows applications rarely got patched because it was just too time
consuming. We were always at risk, and once, the Sasser worm closed down one of ourhigh schools 10 times in a single month. In addition, each of our 90 sites would spend
up to 10 hours a week on patching, but only update 20 to 30 percent of their machines.
That’s 900 hours a week with little to show for it.”Technicians Spend More Time Driving than Doing Repairs
The district had similar problems distributing software. “We had an automated tool
to help install software,” noted Carpenter, “but it required a server at each of our 90
locations, and 10 engineers to manage the system. We spent a lot of money on hardware
and technician time to do a relatively simple task.” When it came to supporting end
users, everything was done by hand. “We did not do remote support,” said Carpenter.
“If an employee had an issue, a technician would drive out to make the repair. They
would spend 30 minutes traveling to a school and five minutes on the fix. We were
wasting a lot of time and money. For all of these reasons, we decided to implement acomprehensive network management system.”
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http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=46Ivanti Success Story: Granite School District

Solution: Automated Network Management Suite Keeps Classes Upand RunningIt was a big decision, so the district took its time researching the various systems in themarket. “We put together a team that did a proof of concept on the top management
products,” said Carpenter. “We chose Ivanti® Management Suite and Security Suite for two
big reasons: from a technology standpoint, they had everything we needed, and the price
was right.”“We chose IvantiManagement Suite andSecurity Suite for two bigreasons: from a technology

Three Images Instead of 2,000

standpoint, they had

The new solution reduced the number of images that Carpenter’s team had to maintainfrom 2,000 down to three. “Imaging is now centralized and done from a single location,”stated Carpenter. “And with only three hardware-independent images, two technicians canmanage the entire service instead of 10. That’s a huge savings, and allows those eight othertechnicians to focus on more important network issues. Patching is also centralized now, andtwo engineers spend about 10 hours a month managing patches for all the sites, versus 900
hours a week before. That’s an astronomical time savings. And we’re achieving nearly 100
percent coverage for both Windows and non-Windows applications.”

everything we needed, andPeer-to-Peer Sharing Keeps Bandwidth Open
Software distribution has also been simplified. “We were able to reduce the number ofservers for installing software from 90 down to four,” explained Carpenter. “And two people
now manage the system instead of 10. And while many classes require a great deal of video
streaming, Ivanti’s peer-to-peer sharing ensures plenty of bandwidth to allow streaming andsoftware installations to take place at the same time.”
The solution’s remote support tool has nearly eliminated travel time. “We have one network
engineer who supports 20 schools, and he now does 90 percent of his work from his desk,”
continued Carpenter. “Before, that person could spend up to 90 percent of his time travelingand 10 percent doing the actual repair. That’s a dramatic change in the amount of time we can
now devote to supporting our end users.”

Power Management Feature Generates $207,000 Rebate
The solution is also saving the district on overhead costs. “One of the biggest capital losses
that we can now control is our energy bill,” said Carpenter. “Just for turning on Ivanti’s power
management feature, we received a $207,000 rebate from the local electric company. We
have 13,000 PCs in our labs and many of those were often left on overnight. Not any more.
Over a year’s time, those savings really add up. Ivanti has clearly paid for itself, and continues
to save us time and money. But the biggest benefit is that our students and faculty haveready access to technology when they need it.”

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the price was right.”“Ivanti has paid for itself,and continues to save us
time and money. But thebiggest benefit is that ourstudents and faculty haveready access to technology
when they need it.”— Mark Carpenter
Desktop Management
Engineer
Granite School District