Abstract

The fast spread of computer networks and broadband Internet access and also the development of different operating systems make possible the use of different virtualization techniques. Virtualization techniques provide efficient IT solutions in corporate and educational sectors. We present an original structural framework for which the effect of virtualization technology are measured, based on a real campus wide deployment. The Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) provides academic members access to virtual applications on and off-campus for easy convenient access to academic resources in a server in data centre. In this paper, we present, at the beginning, a comparative performance analysis of Remote applications and Desktop Virtualization based on parallels 2X RAS versus Microsoft RDS. We introduce system architecture for the two tested scenario and test environment with Experiment Setup and implementations. Also, this paper provides analysis and implementation on the perceived and categorical perspectives on the usefulness, effectiveness and values of this technology in an academic environment. The main conclusions of the paper Indicated that students and academic staff have generally improved a remote accessibility to their course documents and academic materials virtually, using their own devices of different platforms which enabled them to perform course work more effectively resulting in improved system reliability, availability and scalability.