Through a subscription-based cloud-computing model, Kentucky's Pike County Schools brought its student-to-computer ratio down to 2 to 1 without spending millions of dollars.

"We were running into a case of [having a] limited budget, and still not wanting to cut back on our goals for our students as far as technology is concerned," said Maritta Horne, the district's chief information officer and director of technology.

"Purchasing machines was a problem," Horne said. "If I were to purchase 1,400 machines, it would be well in excess of $1 million for my district. It's just not feasible at this time."

With cloud-computing software from Desktone Inc., the district transformed its relic computers that were ready for the scrap heap into fast, fully functioning virtual machines.

The district could revive these old machines because cloud computing eliminates the need for a hard drive on the local computer. In a cloud environment, the processing happens at the server level, not locally at the desktop. The desktop machine is simply a conduit, or dumb terminal, that receives processing power and software delivered from the server, or the "cloud."

"With this process, it doesn't even matter if they don't have a hard drive," Horne said of the machines. "As long as the CD-ROM works or the USB works, we can get them on the network."

Pike County's technology staff carry a boot image, on either a CD or a USB key, which tells the machine how to access the district's cloud. If a computer is too old or too costly to fix, they simply pop in the CD and make it work.

Not only has the district saved money by reusing its old computers, but maintenance costs have gone down tremendously, too.

"Typically, we would have between 150 and 200 work orders a month with a regular system," Horne said, "and now we are down to a fraction of that, a quarter of that."

Because Pike County uses a subscription-based model for its cloud computing, its IT staff members don't have to worry about server maintenance or configuration. "That's a major savings for me. Not only do I not have to have the expertise on site for my staff, but I don't have to maintain [the servers], either," Horne said.

Electricity consumption has decreased as well. The computers no longer draw as much power, because the hard drives are not running.

In this model of cloud computing, also known as Desktop as a Service (DaaS), everything needed on a traditional desktop computer resides on the server: the processing power, the operating system, the software, and the user's files and data. All the user needs is a screen, a keyboard, and a communication device--such as a laptop, PC, mobile telephone, or some type of handheld device--to access the virtualized desktop.

Pike County has 10,200 students and is the largest county geographically in Kentucky, covering 700 square miles. The district has 27 K-12 schools, including two "day" treatment facilities and three vocational and technical facilities. Sixty percent of classrooms have "smart" classroom tools, including interactive whiteboards, projection devices, and document cameras.