Wyse Technology Thin Clients Enable Norwegian Schools to Meet Green IT Objectives

Vestby Municipality Offers Over 2000 Students and Teachers Enhanced PC Functionality via Client Virtualization Technology

SAN JOSE, Calif. – 06/09/2009 - Wyse Technology, the global leader in thin computing and client virtualization, today announced that it has completed installation of over 1,000 zero clients in Vestby municipality, Norway. The innovative new "zero" infrastructure is fully operational with students and educators already benefitting from the implementation.  Wyse zero clients can display and execute applications similar to a PC, but with central control and storage of the OS, applications, and data. In addition to the technological advantages, Vestby meeting its Green IT objectvies, by significantly reducing their power consumption by replacing the existing 650 personal computers previously used in the schools.  Thin clients use up to 90% less energy than average personal computers.

Vestby local authorities, having realized that the existing IT systems at local schools were becoming costly to maintain and impractical to keep up to date, decided to invest NOK5 million (£500,000) in new IT infrastructure in 2008. This investment allowed them to significantly widen access to high quality IT for education while also reducing maintenance costs, and freeing up budget to invest elsewhere.  The key selection criteria focused on finding their high quality IT system was able to deliver the same quality of access to data and applications as a PC, while lowering the overall TCO, reducing energy consumption as well as being future proof.  Competing options either could not support the applications required, or delivered a poor student experience.  The Wyse zero client solution,  however, delivered the best savings, flexibility and experience.

Teachers in Vestby have been using Wyse thin clients for their own administration and course preparation work since 2003, providing the IT team with direct experience of the robust and simple management of thin computing. With the wider rollout in schools across the municipality, Wyse provided a system that was capable of handling the data, multimedia, and application accessibility required by Vestby's students.

"The Wyse solution provides each student with a unique personal profile, allowing them to access specific applications and course work online. It also allows them to access their profile from home, making homework more productive," according to Lars Peter Lilleng, ICT Manager for Education and Vestby teacher.  "The project has had a great environmental impact as well.  In a recent review of power consumption for the municipality schools, it was estimated that the switch to thin computing has delivered an 80% reduction in power usage and cut the annual power costs by over £17,500."

More information on the implementation is available through a video interview of Vestby students and educators, at: http://www.thinking-thin.com/wsm-wyse-edu.html

"This roll-out in Norway is part of an ever-growing trend in the education sector.  As education evolves to meet the needs of today's students, the technology involved has to evolve as well," states David Angwin, Director of Marketing for EMEA at Wyse. "With standard PC-based systems you are faced with ageing desktops, viruses and equipment misuse that can lead to teachers spending more time 'firefighting than teaching. With desktop and mobile thin computing solutions from Wyse they have dramatically simplified information and communication technology support while at the same time benefetting from significant financial savings."

About Wyse Technology

Wyse Technology is the global leader in thin computing-based virtualization software and hardware solutions. Wyse and its strategic partners, including, Citrix®, CSC®, IBM®, Lenovo®, Microsoft®, Novell®, VMware® and others deliver the most innovative hardware, software, and services that optimize the benefits of cloud computing, virtualization and green IT. These thin computing solutions allow consumers, SMEs and large public and private enterprises to access high definition voice, data and video content they need, with optimized security, manageability, and user experience at a much lower total cost of ownership than other traditional end user devices, including PCs. Wyse has the largest global distribution network in the thin computing market through its partners and offices worldwide. Wyse was founded in 1981, and it is headquartered in San Jose, California, USA.

For more information, visit the Wyse website at http://www.wyse.com or call 1-800-GET-WYSE* All brands and names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective holders.