Failure of UK schools to adopt thin client IT architectures is creating an ‘an environmental time-bomb’, producing 1m tonnes of carbon dioxide and spending over £100m each year on electricity.

A report by Open Source consultancy Sirius Corporation adds that the Government's target of interactive whiteboard in every classroom and a computer for every pupil will increase school's power consumption ten fold within the next decade.

Sirius Corporation is critical of BECTA (British Educational and Technological Agency) procurement frameworks which, it says, exclude suppliers of leaner hardware and 'virtualised' network services.

Traditional 'fat-client' workstations should be replaced by low-power 'thin-client' terminals. With flat screens and server consolidation, power consumption could be reduced even further.

"The computing model promoted by BECTA's frameworks is creating a massive energy-sink," Mark Taylor, CEO at Sirius Corporation. "Most school PCs spend their time idle. The hardware specified is just too powerful for the tasks required of school children."

Taylor adds: "The hardware requirements to run Windows Vista means these consumption figures will rise even further. Schools are using computers as room heaters which then need to be cooled using expensive air conditioning."

© 2006 IEE.org. Original article

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