Using PVS to Manage PCs for Teaching and Learning and its Deployment Plan

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As mentioned in the previous article (item 3 in Ref: Network Computing Issue 85 - September 2015), the first phase of desktop virtualization using Citrix Provisioning Service (PVS) had been implemented in selected teaching venues (a few lecture theatres, classrooms and CSC teaching studios) for pilot run in 2015. In Semester A of 2016, the number of PVS-managed PCs has grown to 560. With the advancement of the PVS technology and the support experience gained over time, using PVS to manage shared PCs for teaching/learning has proven to be more reliable and time effective as compared with using the conventional local hard disk requiring on-site maintenance.

In 2017, it is planned to have PVS deployed to all shared PCs managed by the Central IT; this will amount to over 1000 PCs in the four academic buildings (AC1, AC2, AC3 and CMC) covering those in all lecture theatres, classrooms, CSC teaching studios and Express Terminals. With such growth, the PVS reliability also has to be strengthened by the redistribution of servers on different network segments and locations to increase resilience and redundancy.