Datasouth Business Solutions

Technology helping to put kids first

The Canterbury Westland Free Kindergarten Association is an incorporated body which provides professional services to the 62 Kidsfirst Kindergartens in Canterbury and Westland. The Canterbury Westland Free Kindergarten Association is a non-profit, government funded organisation.

Currently there are approximately 5000 children enrolled in the 62 kindergartens, with another 4000 on the waiting lists to enter kindergarten. There are approximately 13 languages used by staff in the kindergartens, representing at least 15 ethnic groups. More than 100 of the children enrolled have identified special education-development needs and require a written, individual development plan.

In recent times, the Canterbury Westland Free Kindergarten Association has been faced with increased administration and compliance requirements. To assist with the management of these requirements, the association identified that the use of technology in the kindergartens would assist in the reduction of the demands currently being placed on staff.

The requirements

The association created an IT working party whose terms of reference were to identify the role information technology could play in the kindergartens to reduce the current administration requirements and determine the best solution for achieving this.

As a long term business partner of the association, Datasouth was invited to provide consulting services to the organisation to assist with the development of a strategy for deploying information technology into the kindergartens. The terms of reference for this strategy concentrated on two areas; the hardware and operating system platform that would be deployed into each of the kindergartens, and the software that would be implemented to assist the kindergartens with their administration tasks.

Early on, Datasouth identified with the association that there were two models that could suit the deployment of IT into the kindergartens - being either a locally or centrally distributed application model. Datasouth was commissioned by the association to develop a report that provided an overview of the two models, assisting the association to obtain a thorough understanding of each model so that an informed decision could be made on a solution moving forward.

Following this process, it was decided that a centrally distributed application model would provide the best solution for the association. This model would provide a fully managed solution into each of the kindergartens, providing central shared data repositories without the kindergartens having to be responsible for strategies such as data backup and antivirus protection - as these functions would be performed centrally at the association. The centrally distributed application model also provided the association with version control of the applications deployed into the kindergartens, system security and internet and email content filtering.

Chosen technology platform

A thin client platform utilising Microsoft Windows 2003 Server and Citrix Presentation Server was decided on as the best solution to deploy the required model. This was designed to integrate into the associations existing Microsoft local area network infrastructure. Via the utilisation of Citrix Presentation Server, all applications that were required to be accessed by the individual kindergartens would be hosted centrally on the Citrix Presentation Server Farm, with the associated data hosted on the network infrastructure.

With no requirement for the kindergartens to install applications or save data locally, it was decided — rather than traditional PC desktops - the deployment of thin client appliances would offer the best return on investment. The thin client appliance offered a solution that had no moving parts and therefore reduced the risk of component failure. The recommended thin client appliances also removed the ability for users to alter the standard image installed onto these devices, reducing the association's total cost of ownership.

The final part of the platform solution was to identify a suitable telecommunication solution that would connect the individual kindergartens thin client appliances back to the association’s terminal server. Before a suitable telecommunication solution could be recommended, a number of considerations had to be taken into account. These included security requirements, solution reliability, and price. Security of the system was paramount to the association and this objective was deemed critical. The association also required a communication solution that offered reasonable reliability - however, it was decided that the administration functions of the kindergartens were not mission critical. Lastly, price of the solution would impact on the viability of the project and therefore the solution had to be one that met the budget objectives of the association.

Taking into account these requirements, it was decided that the solution that best met all of these objectives was an IPSEC VPN delivered over an ADSL platform. The IPSEC VPN was chosen as this provided a secure data transfer solution via its authentication, data encryption and key management methodologies. A fibre connection out to the internet was deployed at the association to provide the kindergartens with an internet gateway into the network. This solution was chosen for the association internet gateway - rather than an ADSL solution as deployed into the kindergartens - based on reliability and fixed price solution.

Finally, consideration was given to the application requirements of the kindergartens.

The IT working party set about identifying the requirements of the kindergartens and these were presented to Datasouth so that suitable applications could be recommended and aligned to these demands. A requirement for the kindergartens to have access to a full Microsoft Office suite were identified in conjunction with specific third party software that was unique to early childhood learning. As part of this process, all software had to be certified as being compliant to run in a thin client environment.

The Client's View