Healthcare and Education
The world is experiencing hardships across different industries. Two industries that are top of mind for everyone right now are education and healthcare. Both industries have immediate needs. Classes need to be available for children of all ages including higher education. Healthcare institutions need to stay operational.
Beyond the classroom, this also impacts parents. They want the assurance that their children can receive a valid education (from home or in the classroom). They need to have access to the right tools to make this work. For full-time workers, they need to balance work and education for their child(ren).
Quick access to a healthcare provider (telehealth or otherwise) is a desire for all. Healthcare professionals need to keep things running efficiently wherever they are practicing.
Funding Available
Many organizations in education and healthcare are in need of various solutions to help accommodate these unusual times. The biggest issue is that many may not have the budget available.
There is Federal funding available. Many have acted on this and have already received their allotted amount. There’s also the possibility that many (including institutions) aren’t knowledgeable about who and what qualifies for the CARES Act.
CARES Act
On March 27th, the CARES Act was signed into law. The United States Treasury set aside $150 billion. Through the Coronavirus Relief Fund, the CARES Act provides for payments to State, Local, and Tribal governments navigating the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The CARES Act requires that the payments from the Coronavirus Relief Fund only be used to cover expenses that—
- are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19);
- were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 (the date of enactment of the CARES Act) for the State or government; and
- were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020 and ends on December 30, 2020.
This funding can include Technology infrastructure maintenance, laptops for children for in-home education, telehealth and improved bandwidth capacity. There is a significant demand for institutions to keep up with the necessary technology and bandwidth as remote working and schooling continue.
Examples of How the Funding Can Be Used
This funding covers K-12, higher education, Telehealth and Healthcare providers at the state and local levels. Many organizations may ask how can this funding be used.
In healthcare, there is the need for never-ending storage for electronic versions of X-rays. These are typically very large files and will take up a significant amount of space in one’s current storage environment. This is one example in healthcare where funding is needed.
Another case is schools who store online educational software, student’s online reports, projects, etc. More and more file space is a need. Data centers will need to expand and costs for storage will increase. These type of funds can help education and healthcare institutions expand their storage to accommodate the forthcoming Terabyte avalanche. There are cases where these funds could pay for the entire storage upgrade.
Providing children with the necessary equipment to learn as much at home as they are in the classroom is expensive. However, like the potential storage costs being covered under the CARES Act, State or local funding, the same could be said for laptops. Below is an example of funding available from a fund titled, “Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER).”
Items to Be Aware Of
However, much like annual budgets prior to COVID-19, if funds are not used, then the next round results in a smaller financial injection. There are also local and state funds available for educators and healthcare providers. These have their own deadlines for application and expenditures. Below is a timeline of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) ($13.2 billion). This is just an example of what to be aware of when researching and applying for funds. There’s a ‘shot clock’ for obtaining these funds.
Recipients of the CARES Act, State and local funding must all meet the requirements. At Zunesis, we can help identify funds and grants which would be applicable to an education or healthcare institution. We have done this for several of our SLED and Healthcare customers. It can be overwhelming, but we’re very good at identifying these opportunities.
Being an IT Solutions provider, we can identify the optimal infrastructure for your Education or Healthcare organization. And once the funding is available, we will make the applicable hardware order, track it, install it and provide documentation for reference.
We are all in this fight together. Let’s work together to help one another out during these times of need.
The CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEER) guidelines state that funds can be allocated for any costs due to changes to the delivery of instruction due to Covid 19. Amongst other allowances, Institutions may use their funds to purchase equipment of hardware and software in support of their Distance Learning initiative.
VMware Horizon VDI- Distance Learning Portals
Zunesis is stepping in to assist our Higher Education customers. We have found that before expanding (or establishing) VMware Horizon VDI-driven learning portals, we must first shore-up the underlying infrastructure. In many instances, we find legacy hardware that is not compatible with VMWare 6.7 and higher. This is necessary to ensure a secure and robust environment capable of supporting applications such as graphics heavy applications like Adobe Creative Suite or AutoDesk. Without the hardware upgrade (Gen10 technologies, enhanced memory and GPU), the Distance Learning experience risks students dropping off when frustrated with slow rendering speeds.
Zunesis considers two major requirements in creating/expanding VMware Horizon Distance Learning portals:
- Solution must show overall ROI for Institution
- Design must showcase enhanced management efficiencies and increased security
ROI Justification
The ROI for the upgrading infrastructure to support these VDI expansions will be realized in both time and money savings for IT organizations far beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Having all servers in a central location means easier system maintenance and upgrades. All users get each upgrade in near real-time.
IT can also assign the exact resources each user needs, so none go unused. This is especially important for engineering applications such as AutoCad, where issuing each user a workstation would be costly – and most need the app only occasionally. Virtual environments enable multiple users to share resources, thereby increasing hardware utilization. They also reduce the need to buy and support expensive workstations.
Additionally, the enhanced Distance Learning portal will enable IT departments to save money on application licensing costs. Users who need consistent access to engineering applications may get a personalized virtual desktop with their own account. Others who need only occasional access can use pooled desktops on a time-share basis. License servers here can potentially require fewer licenses while serving up client connections more efficiently.
Enhanced Management and Security
With ease of management and enhanced security a key concern, we also considered the number of improvements VMWare has made in vSphere 6.7 and HPE has made with their GEN10 Servers.
- There are a multitude of enhancements in VMWare vSphere 6.7. For busy IT teams, the update to the management console (vCenter Server 6.7) includes a new vCenter Server Hybrid Linked Mode that enables management insight across both on-premises and cloud-based resources.
- Upgrading legacy servers to HPE GEN10 technology enhances datacenter security with HPE’s Silicon Root of Trust. This protects the organization against firmware attacks. It detects previously undetectable compromised firmware or malware. It also helps to rapidly recover the server in the event of an attack.
In conclusion, the success of any Distance Learning initiative can be measured by the number of students that continue to participate. A properly designed infrastructure that can support the intensive requirements of applications will minimize downtime. It will enable thinly staffed IT departments to function efficiently.
Contact Zunesis to find out more about the CARES ACT and the best solutions for higher education needs.
Additional Resources:
Digital Transformation in Higher Education
4 Ways VMware is enabling Business Continuity for Government & Education Customers
