Key Challenges
- With nine schools from grades K-12 serving 4,400 students, Willard Public Schools needed to replace its aging IT infrastructure with a modern solution capable of supporting a diverse set of applications for its evolving digital landscape.
- Willard Public Schools has a small IT team of eight, and without staff available on-site at each location, the district needed a reliable IT infrastructure that was self-healing, automated and clustered for high availability, and could grow with them to support digital growth.
- Willard Public Schools needed to reduce physical rack space, but still be able to manage their backup and support requirements.
Top Benefits From Selecting Scale Computing
- Upgraded to a modern, future-proof, high-performing distributed enterprise IT infrastructure capable of keeping pace with new digital technologies, scaling in two instances since 2011.
- Gained the ability to scale services without adding IT staff, decreased downtime and saved money from comparable systems.
- Scale Computing delivered flexible IT infrastructure, which was used to underpin and run the district’s specialized student record software including curriculum, transportation and support software, allowing the IT team to focus on more strategic projects.
- Gained physical storage space by eliminating 20-25 servers, reducing an entire rack of servers to a few storage nodes, clusters and switches.
- Selected a long-term solution and replaced existing legacy IT infrastructure.
With Scale Computing HyperCore, we found a solution that checked all the boxes and allowed us to focus on other things. Not only is it self-healing and reliable, but it actually does what it says it will.— Scott Wooldridge, Technology Director, Willard Public Schools
Willard Public Schools - History and IT Challenges
Located in Willard, Missouri, Willard Public Schools serves approximately 4,400 students across nine schools from grades K-12. The district is committed to a “Future Ready” learning environment, and requires a modern IT infrastructure to support that vision. With an IT staff of eight people, Willard Public Schools had the money and personnel required to address the district’s needs, but struggled with supporting the types of applications needed to keep up with evolving technology requirements.
Before deciding on Scale Computing, Willard Public Schools was using aging physical server boxes, which were taking up limited closet space and preventing the district from keeping pace with their software system upgrades. The IT staff at Willard Public Schools was looking for an affordable, efficient IT infrastructure to provide students with the best system for a quality education and the ability to support the rapidly evolving technology needed for the education space.
Scale Computing HyperCore – Introduction, Selection and Implementation
The IT staff at Willard Public Schools began exploring the idea of using virtual machines to replace the aging physical servers in 2011. After connecting with a local channel partner they met Scale Computing and decided to invest.
Having spent 20 years with the district in tech support and administration, Technology Director Scott Wooldridge had seen the evolution of Willard Public Schools’ IT infrastructure and turned to Scale Computing for a single, easy-to-use platform that could be clustered for high availability and managed remotely with ease of use for its nine locations. “Previously, we were running between 20-25 physical server machines, which were filling up most of the server closet. Not only did Scale Computing dramatically reduce our setup down to just a few storage nodes, clusters and switches, but we no longer had to worry about downtime,” recalls Wooldridge.
After the success of its initial implementation in 2011, Willard Public Schools realized Scale Computing provided a future-proof solution capable of evolving with the district. In 2017, the IT team replaced the district’s remaining legacy IT infrastructure with more of Scale Computing’s all-in-one hyperconverged systems, further reducing the amount of space and resources that had been used by the legacy system.
Support has always been really easy and it’s great working with them. We had one evening where we had two drives go out at the same time and the guys in support worked with us through the night. We’re always really impressed with their dedication.
Finding a Long-term Solution with Scale Computing
Since it started using Scale Computing HyperCore, Willard Public Schools’ IT infrastructure has evolved into a modern, high-performing, reliable and easy to manage solution, affording them the ability to run applications for students that reflect the internet-based support software necessitated by digital advancements.
Scale Computing’s ease of use and ability to deliver a reliable IT infrastructure solution, alongside its dedicated support team, has been well received by the IT staff at Willard Public Schools. The Support and Service team from Scale Computing has been with Willard Public Schools every step of the way over the past nine years. “Support has always been really easy and it’s great working with them. We had one evening where we had two drives go out at the same time and the guys in support worked with us through the night. We’re always really impressed with their dedication,” Woolridge said.
Willard Public Schools noted that the deployment and implementation of SC//HyperCore was completed quickly, providing Willard Public Schools with virtualization, edge computing, server, storage, and disaster recovery in a single solution, leading to a long-term relationship. “We use it for its intended purpose and we don’t have any challenges or issues. My only thoughts on what we should have done differently was switching to SC//HyperCore sooner,” Woolridge said. “Once you have a good experience with a product, you want to stick with it. If I ever have any questions or concerns, I know they’ll be right there.”
For more information visit Scale Computing HyperCore, or read more of our education success stories.