Schools at the Rationalized level of the Infrastructure Optimization Model, have most of their technology infrastructure integrated and it is almost totally managed with zero touch automation. No redundant information is entered or maintained. Student data and other sensitive information is secured such that only the appropriate people access the data.

In the Rationalized infrastructure, the costs involved in managing desktops and servers are at their lowest and processes and policies have been optimized to begin playing a large role in supporting and expanding the business. The use of zero-touch deployment helps minimize cost, deployment time, and technical challenges. The number of images is minimal and the process for managing desktops is very low touch. These organizationa have a clear inventory of hardware and software and only purchase those licenses and computers that they need. Security is extremely proactive with strict policies and control from the desktop to server to firewall to extranet.

School Challenges

At the Rationalized level, schools use integrated systems and extensive automation to address technical challenges.

Raising academic standards/lack of visibility into student progress
Teachers at schools in the Rationalized level can run analytic reports that link curriculum, instructional objectives, and student results. These reports can show the progress of individual students as well as entire class results. With the increased use of mobile devices (laptops, pocket PCs, etc), students have greater access the school's educational resources including adaptive teaching tools which adjust the learning tools to the needs of the individual student.

Business Management: Inefficient operations and a lack of insight into where money is spent
Schools at this level use highly integrated systems that assist the business leadership in proactively providing detailed funding and expense reports, substantial trend reports, and budget modeling tools for planning and risk analysis and decision support.

Communication and access to information for parents and students
Schools at this level can leverage the substantial integration of systems to update Web-based systems automatically with current student and school information. Students and parents can access these systems via the Internet.

Curriculum and lesson sharing among educators
Schools at this level are strongly connected to federated repositories. They provide tools that have smart search capabilities. Such searching algorithms search not only for the specified text, but also provide related searches. Increased use of distant learning and teleconferencing facilitates teacher participation in peer discussions and training. Schools at this level not only participate but can host and archive these activities.

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Moving to Dynamic

By moving to a Dynamic IT infrastructure, organizations can benefit from self-assessment and continuous improvement, access information from anywhere on the Internet with greater ease and security, and ensure compliance and high availability through self-provisioning and quarantine-capable systems.

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