that allows any institution, irrespective
of size, to use the system. At present,
NCCU is able to use it in day-to-day
functions, somewhat separate from
the NC State VCL team. While support
from NC State is still required, it decreases with the passing semesters. As
the pilot project expands and is viewed
as successful, the NCCU goal is to be
completely autonomous in terms of
hardware, software, and maintenance,
though such autonomy is not strictly
necessary. Whether an institution
wants to run its own part of the VCL or
have it run by NC State varies by institutional mission. For NCCU, having its
technology students fully understand
the VCL is almost as important as the
value it gets from using the tool itself;
on the other hand, a middle-school
English class might need access only to
word processing software. Having the
mission of each institution drive the
configuration of the tool highlights the
VCL’s flexibility and fitness as an educational resource.
The evolving VCL model involves a
loose confederation of user organizations consisting of several colleges and
community colleges in the University of
North Carolina system. Some purchase
their own blades, deploying them in
racks in the data center housing VCL
equipment; some use the existing
equipment and just add users to infrastructure already deployed. A statewide
VCL network will eventually include
K– 12 school systems in North Carolina,
nonprofit corporations, and other organizations in need of the functionality
the VCL provides but lacking the means
and expertise to deploy themselves.
NCCU has partnered with two high
schools that exemplify the VCL’s eclectic nature; one is interested in the VCL
primarily as a tool for teaching networking concepts, the other more in the easy
access to the software it provides. Both
serve predominantly African-American
student populations that would benefit
tremendously from being exposed to
VCL innovation.
What about licensing? On the sur-
face it might seem that licensing would
add considerable complexity to VCL
deployment. However, none of the VCL
partners have found this to be the case.
All that is required of any institution
is a clear understanding with the soft-
ware vendor that access to its products
conforms to the agreed-upon license;
access logs provide ready confirmation
that the terms of the license have been
followed. For certain products (such
as widely used statistical software), we
meet with the vendor to establish the
processes it finds acceptable for access-
ing its product. For individual licenses,
VCL staff maps users to software per
the product’s license agreement. While
some up-front organization is required,
licensing is not a major hurdle.
