2,260 users and counting

The Cloud Desktop has been live now for two weeks and we have seen a day by day increase in usage as students have returned and inquisitive staff members have tried out the new service. Over the past 14 days we have seen 2,260 unique users login to the Cloud Desktop. On our busiest day so far we served 811 logon sessions throughout the day, peaking at 148 concurrent users.

The most used application so far is Internet Explorer which has clocked up 1,202 hours of usage. This is to be expected at this time of year as students login to Blackboard and check their timetables. After that, the next significant application is Microsoft Word which has totalled 247 hours.

The feedback we have received so far is overwhelmingly positive, especially with regards to the speed of the desktop and size of the new terminals. The Students’ Union kindly gathered feedback from the students and found that 95% of returning students rated the improvement as “good/very good” (from a random sample of 35 students).

Our survey said…

As the proof of concept trial nears its end we have surveyed those users who have been testing the two systems for their feedback. The results are very positive with comments like “Programs loaded with lightning speed” and “Brilliant! Lets get it implemented permanently ASAP”.

People liked both systems almost equally, with the Remote Desktop solution just edging ahead in speed, reliability and ease of access over Citrix. As a result we will be recommending that the University goes ahead with a solution based on Microsoft Remote Desktop Services.

Full analysis of the survey results is available here:

Windows 7 PoC Survey Analysis