A recent survey conducted by Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS) found that K-12 education technology leaders view virtualization solutions as a viable way to deliver applications and resources to students while reducing IT costs. Due to the ever-growing need to do more with less, and with the new funds available because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, state governments and schools are looking to modern IT infrastructure solutions to get the most out of their resources.

Citrix surveyed K-12 education technology leaders at the March 2009 CoSN Annual Conference to determine attitudes and expectations related to virtualization in the primary education environment. Eighty percent of the respondents cited an interest in desktop virtualization, which indicates that virtualization solutions in the K-12 classroom should see an increase in the months and years ahead. 

According to the survey, other top IT challenges include:

• Secure delivery of applications and resources to the right students at the right time (more than 45 percent);
• Easy delivery of semester-, quarter- or course-based instructional applications and resources (more than 43 percent);
• Reduction of IT costs by extending the lifecycle of existing hardware (42 percent); and
• Freeing IT personnel to work on other projects (42 percent).

According to David Podwojski , director of government, education and health for Citrix Systems, survey responses were very consistent in terms of the challenges and solutions that are top-of-mind in K-12 technology.

"The need for IT in the K-12 environment has grown exponentially, while budgets and staffing have remained flat," said Podwojski. "Technology and administration experts are looking to IT - specifically, virtualization solutions - to improve the delivery of education and to help the IT team do more with the resources at hand."

The survey also gave K-12 education technology leaders the opportunity to provide open-ended responses about the top technical benefits or issues they associate with virtualization solutions in the classroom.

"The responses we received make it very clear that the most meaningful technical benefit of virtualization in the K-12 environment is the ability to spend less time on the management and support of software and hardware," explained Podwojski. "And, with stimulus funds reaching the educational system, school districts can implement the virtualization solutions that will deliver these time and cost savings - benefits that will last long after stimulus money has been spent."