Dive Brief:
- When California's San Bernardino County schools faced big shifts in standards, funding, and technology needs, district officials opted to take on a comprehensive overhaul of the district's technology systems rather than address the challenges piecemeal.
- Writing for eSchool News, David Evans, the district’s systems security research officer, said that the district had tried to put a patchwork of IT solutions together, but found that a “one-stop shop” approach was more effective.
- Evans and other leaders opted to work with Dell, which supplied everything from Internet connectivity upgrades to firewall protections and inventory systems.
Dive Insight:
The impact of taking a big picture approach means that district IT employees spend less time putting out fires and can focus on making sure they’re addressing the needs of schools and teachers. It also means that the district doesn’t have to worry as much about how one system works with another, since they are cohesive and integrated. Incompatibilities between promising technology and existing systems are frequent headaches for educators and IT administrators.
“Through a single pane of glass, we can manage our IT assets easier and better,” Evans writes. “We can proactively prevent security threats and protect our network from unwanted intrusions.”
It also gives the district and the IT department more control over their operations, since there is a single point of contact and a single system to run. On average, Evans’ department checks five times as many tech systems in its inventory per day as it used to.
