Citrix Takes Education to the Top of the Class at Pymble Ladies’ College

SYDNEY, Australia — 25 June 2009 — Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS), today announced that Pymble Ladies’ College (Pymble) is virtualising its computing environment using Citrix technology to improve accessibility to data and applications for its students at school, at home, or on the move.

Pymble engaged Citrix Consulting, Citrix’s business consulting arm, who was key to recommending, designing, implementing and rolling out the solution to best suit the school’s needs. As a result of discussions with Citrix Consulting, Pymble has rolled out Citrix XenDesktop™ to its Year 5 students with plans for virtual desktops to become the status quo for all incoming Year 5 students. Citrix XenDesktop delivers virtual desktops as a service to students anywhere, which means students can now access the school’s e-learning resources via their virtual desktops across any network and device. 

While at school students access their desktops via HP 2533t mobile thin clients. This allows the school to continue with its one-to-one computing program, while leveraging the benefits of a virtual desktop environment. While at home, students can access their school desktops via their notebooks or home PC, as well as remotely print to the classroom printer if required.  As a result, students do not need to carry their notebooks to and from school but still have consistent access to the school’s network and resources at all times.

By implementing a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), Pymble has reduced its total cost of ownership by centralising desktop management and increasing the traditional desktop lifecycle. User induced technical issues which are highly prevalent in a school environment have been reduced with VDI, hence reducing the cost of IT Support and user downtime.

Citrix XenDesktop is the only virtual desktop solution that delivers a high definition user experience over any connection - including low-latency access on the local network to virtual desktops and high latency wide area networks for remote desktop access using Citrix HDX technology.

Pymble is also using Citrix’s server virtualisation product to better utilise its existing resources.  Citrix XenServer™ delivers the critical features of live migration and centralised multi-server management. Pymble benefits from better and more streamlined integration with the school’s virtual desktop infrastructure, simplified virtualisation management across multiple servers and reduced licensing costs.

“Pymble prides itself in ensuring that all students have a world-class education, enabled through the best use of technology,” said Rathika Suresh, Director of Information Technology at Pymble Ladies’College.

“Our goal is to provide an education that prepares our students for the technology-enabled workplace of the future. Citrix took the time to understand the school’s specific needs and provided us with the best technology available.”

Peter Brockhoff, Area Vice President, Australia and New Zealand, Citrix Systems said,

 “As the Digital Education Revolution rolls out across Australia, private and public schools need to turn their attention to how best to support computers in the school environment.

“It is important for schools to maximise the computer fleet investment being provided to them; reduce the total cost of ownership of these fleets; increase the speed of the roll-out of a digital curriculum; and free up teacher’s time to focus on educating tomorrow’s workforce. Virtualisation is the technology that can enable this.”

About Citrix

Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a leading provider of virtualization, networking and software-as-a-service (SaaS) technologies for more than 230,000 organizations worldwide. Its Citrix Delivery Center, Citrix Cloud Center (C3) and Citrix Online Services product families radically simplify computing for millions of users, delivering applications as an on-demand service to any user, in any location on any device. Citrix customers include the world’s largest Internet companies, 99 percent of Fortune Global 500 enterprises, and hundreds of thousands of small businesses and prosumers worldwide. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies worldwide in more than 100 countries. Founded in 1989, annual revenue in 2008 was $1.6 billion.

About Pymble Ladies' College

Established in 1916, Pymble Ladies’ College has a reputation as a centre of educational excellence, providing students with extraordinary opportunities to achieve their potential. Set on 20 hectares of beautiful grounds on Sydney’s North Shore, the College offers outstanding curricular and co-curricular programs for girls from Kindergarten to Year 12, with boarding available from Year 7.

Pymble offers advanced learning technology and extensive opportunities in the performing arts, sporting and cultural arenas. A strong academic record and focus on each student as an individual creates a refreshing and stimulating environment, which inspires a holistic educational experience.

For more information about Pymble Ladies’ College, visit www.pymblelc.nsw.edu.au

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