Will Education Break Free Of Budget Bust?
Education, especially K-12, is often inextricably tied to state and local government budgets. With state budget woes a still-brutal reality -- according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 38 states have predicted budget gaps, totaling $89 billion overall, for their fiscal 2011 -- limited funding opportunities for education IT, outside of the temporary fixes provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, are also a reality.
Virtualization and "smart" classrooms are technologies that have traction in that type of an environment, suggested VARs, though both advances -- which have been discussed for years -- are still far from the norm.
"The industry's ready, except a lot of schools and state entities don't really have the infrastructure in place to utilize virtualization," said Bill Rutherford, vice president of sales at Pomeroy IT Solutions, Hebron, Ky. "That creates new opportunities but also new challenges."
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