Supporting ubiquitous computing through directory enabled technologies

摘要

Drew has been providing computers to students since 1984. Many universities have ubiquitous computing programs where students receive a laptop computer as part of their educational package. These programs reduce the dependence on and management issues of traditional computer labs, and allow 24x7 computing access to every student at the University. Drew also provides Novell Directory Services (NDS) accounts to all of these students, and utilizes Novell ZENworks to customize software, personalize information, maintain machines, and reduce the number of visits to the help desk. This session will describe how we use the directory and other Novell software to provide a seamless computing experience for students, and how we achieve an easily maintainable, yet loosely managed environment. A combination of the retail ZENworks product and open source Web and LDAP tools enables us to leverage the ubiquitous computing environment and maximize economies of scale, permitting a far more in depth support programthan would otherwise be possible in a student-supplied computing environment. There will be a discussion about leveraging a well-populated directory to provide personalization of the network experience for the end user as well. While the session will be most relevant to schools with ubiquitous computing programs, many of the concepts and ideas could be applied to a computing lab environment or to student-supplied computing models.Drew has been providing computers to students since 1984. Many universities have ubiquitous computing programs where students receive a laptop computer as part of their educational package. These programs reduce the dependence on and management issues of traditional computer labs, and allow 24x7 computing access to every student at the University. Drew also provides Novell Directory Services (NDS) accounts to all of these students, and utilizes Novell ZENworks to customize software, personalize information, maintain machines, and reduce the number of visits to the help desk. This session will describe how we use the directory and other Novell software to provide a seamless computing experience for students, and how we achieve an easily maintainable, yet loosely managed environment. A combination of the retail ZENworks product and open source Web and LDAP tools enables us to leverage the ubiquitous computing environment and maximize economies of scale, permitting a far more in depth support program than would otherwise be possible in a student-supplied computing environment. There will be a discussion about leveraging a well-populated directory to provide personalization of the network experience for the end user as well. While the session will be most relevant to schools with ubiquitous computing programs, many of the concepts and ideas could be applied to a computing lab environment or to student-supplied computing models.