ServersServer Spending for Public Schools Expected to Soar

Server Spending for Public Schools Expected to Soar

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Technology-spending may be down across the board, but U.S. public school districts appear to be bucking the trend.

According to IDC’s latest report on technology spending in primary and secondary schools, more than 6,000 U.S. school districts plan to purchase servers and other networking hardware in the current academic year. Not surprisingly, larger districts are planning to buy significantly more servers than smaller ones.

Technology-spending may be down across the board, but U.S. public school districts appear to be bucking the trend.

IDC anticipates this will translate into $153 million in server spending for the 2001-2002 school year, an 8.5 percent increase over the previous year.

IDC believes this spending increase is driven by continued interest in local networking, as almost half of the 14,000 school districts in the Unites States plan to purchase at least one new server in the 2001-2002 time frame, and many are upgrading entire networks.

IDC research also found LAN penetration at individual schools surpassed 90 percent in the 2000-2001 school year.

“Although LAN penetration is high, networks are used most often by school administrators, principals, and superintendents, rather than students and teachers in the classroom,” said Stephen Webber, research analyst for IDC’s K-College eLearning service. “The opportunity to apply networking technology to the classroom is only just beginning to be explored.”

In addition, 25.5 percent of districts surveyed expressed interest in wireless LAN technologies.

IDC reported strong WAN adoption as well. Nearly 51 percent of school districts have a WAN. The adoption of districtwide WANs is directly related to the centralization of school and student information. District size was also a factor, as the largest districts had greater need for the benefits WANs offer.

Apple and Dell continued to be the installed server leaders in the K-12 education market.

IDC also found that nearly 7,000 districts made their 2000-2001 hardware purchases through manufacturers’ sales staff.

To order a copy of Server Opportunities in K-12 Education: Market Profile and Outlook (IDC #25486), contact Cheryl Toffel at +1 800 343 4952 extension 4389 or at ctoffel@idc.com.

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