So, the much loathed emergency budget has arrived and as predicted education could suffer cuts of up to 25%; I predict that, with swingeing cuts to be made – and IT (read: network, rather than curricular) not being seen as a frontline department, the IT budget within schools will be far too tempting for senior management teams to cut.

Panic not! I don’t think that this needs to be the bad news that many think it will be.  There are lots of ways to squeeze that extra bit of value out of the money that does get allocated and I think that IT managers in schools will have to come up with some really innovative solutions for the short-medium term. Let’s take a quick look at them:

Software

One of the areas that can see some savings made is in the software that you use on the network.  Companies are releasing some truly fantastic software tools for free, and I’m not just talking end-user tools like FreeMind, Audacity and Logo.

Microsoft, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, has some brilliant network tools like Live@edu which take the pressure off IT managers not just in terms of software licensing, but also in terms of server costs, power, man hours, etc. The whole service is hosted in the “cloud” (in Dublin, as it happens) meaning you can finally switch off or redeploy that old Exchange server you’ve got at the bottom of the rack – money saved!

By encouraging students to store their work on their Skydrive, or on their own external hard disks and memory sticks you can put off the need for more network storage a little longer, and it means students can easily access their files from anywhere they’ve got an Internet connection.

Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 offer some significant enhancements in managing a network – so much so that if push really came to shove you could remove that expensive management tool (such as RM Community Connect 3 / 4) and have a go at doing it yourself; even after you’ve factored in the cost of training courses you’d still potentially save hundreds or thousands of pounds on expensive support contracts and licence fees.

Hardware

Instead of upgrading that suite of computers and disposing of the old hardware why not look at redeploying those machines in low-use areas as thin clients?  One of the things I think IT managers are going to have to do is be really ruthless in their distribution of high-power machines – there just isn’t the money or the requirement for every classroom to have them.  By redeploying older hardware as thin clients in areas that only require basic tools such as the Office suite, or Internet access you’re saving money.  Perhaps that old Exchange server I mentioned earlier may be upgradeable to have enough juice to act as a terminal server?  It may not run like an F1 car – but if it means you save a few thousand for a year or two I’m sure that you can justify it.

Already secured the budget to buy new servers?  How about looking into virtualisation? It’s quite tricky to get your head into the virtualisation way of thinking, but once it’s there you can see how reducing the physical number of servers without sacrificing the logical number of servers can lead to some pretty hefty cost savings in the medium to long term – the saving in electricity and air conditioning bills alone can be up to several thousand pounds a year!

Ultimately this is going to be a tough time for education – but having to tighten our belts needn’t mean the end of the world as we know it – it just means we have to be a bit more "make do and mend". The hardware we have on our desk lasts longer now than ever before and with a creative mind and a bit of patience it is possible to turn this bag full of lemons the government has handed us into some pretty awesome lemonade!

Interesting reading:

• Top 10 Money Saving Tips – The Microsoft UK Schools Blog
• School online services – for free – The Guardian
• Integrating Microsoft with Moodle – ZDNet