Krome Deliver ICT Refresh at Francis Holland School

When Francis Holland School, Regent’s Park, decided to upgrade their entire ICT infrastructure, they turned to Krome to design and implement a comprehensive solution that met the evolving technology needs of both staff and pupils.

Founded in the 1878 by the Reverend Canon Francis Holland, Francis Holland School located near Regent’s Park in central London has 460 female students between the ages of 11 and 18. The school has seen a number of illustrious females pass through its doors in the last century, including astronomer Eleanor Burbidge, sisters Jackie and Joan Collins, artist Hermione Hammond, and a host of other successful talented females.

The Requirement

With a reputation for exceptional academic standards to uphold, the school decided to invest in an improved ICT infrastructure, capable of supporting the school’s back office and learning environments now and in the future. The initial stage included a move to a virtualised platform compatible with advanced applications; an essential feature of the upgrade that would enhance both the teaching and learning services provided by the school, improve the resiliency and reliability of their systems and reduce the number of IT related incidents requiring support; enhancing the overall user experience.

Phase one, the remedial development stage, would focus on improving the school’s service vulnerabilities. This initial phase included updating network administration and user account facilities, upgrading the school’s internal management information systems, replacing storage, backup and disaster recovery services, as well as the core server infrastructure.

The right solution needed to exceed the existing capacity requirements of the school, with scope to support future technologies, as well as existing services, and to provide a document-sharing platform compatible with a virtual server environment.

The Solution

Having researched a number of other vendor’s products, and requested proposals from three separate organisations, FHS engaged Krome Technologies to complete the refresh. Krome’s re-design of the school’s infrastructure reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over three years, and included a virtualised VMware server platform, scalable Dell EqualLogic storage solution, Aerohive wireless network, Palo Alto firewall, and server-based computing for the school’s learning environments.

“Krome proposed vendor technologies that met our needs, backed up by some innovative ideas about how to meet the range of requirements identified in our project brief. Rather than taking an ‘off the shelf’ sales focused approach, Krome had the right blend of technical expertise that was required for this project and developed a strategy that met our objectives and our budget”, stated the Director of IT at FHS.

FHS now has future-proof ICT learning facilities, fully supported by a comprehensive back office infrastructure that “meets the school’s development goals”, and the Schools Director of IT goes on to explain, Krome’s understanding of the school’s requirements, and identifying the right solution for their particular environment, was key to the overall success of the project:

“While new technologies and the functionalities they provide can be great, if they are implemented poorly it undermines the functionality of the product. Krome were innovative in their approach, identifying and deploying relevant technologies to meet the requirements set out in our objectives”.Director of IT, Francis Holland School.

Phase two of the project is currently in proof of concept; and includes the deployment of AMX automation systems and SMART boards to enable fast and efficient media streaming in thirty-five classrooms throughout the school, phase two aims to further advance the school’s goals, supporting delivery of ICT as an educational tool.

This next phase will also include a move to a Citrix virtual desktop environment, with the implementation of Krome’s VDI in a box solution; unifying the school’s hardware assets and replacing existing PCs and workstations with thin clients from NComputing, giving students more flexibility within their learning environment, both on and off site.

Further Information