VMware in Higher Education

Based in the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina, Mayland Community College (MCC) serves more than 8,000 people each year through their educational programs, including more than twenty percent of the adult population within their service area. MCC was chartered in 1971 to serve Mitchell, Avery and Yancey counties (hence the name MAYland). Mayland has also opened two satellite campuses: Yancey County in 2001 and Avery County in 2002.

Working with MCC for the past ten years as Network Director and now Systems Administrator, Tommy Ledford had been looking to utilize virtualization to help implement a data disaster recovery plan for the community college. Ledford saw the potential to reduce IT costs and improve flexibility with server consolidation, as well as decrease downtime and improve reliability. The solution they were looking for would reduce IT costs, increase their control and make managing the entire solution convenient for the IT department. Unfortunately, the ideal solution never fit into their budget.