As school administrators consider ways to make technology more accessible to more students--and as broadband networks continue to play a larger role in the delivery of everyday instruction--information technology (IT) experts contend a new "game-changing" technology is poised to alter the paradigm of software administration and IT management in schools, shaking up a market notorious for its resistance to change.

At its most basic level, the concept, known as "software virtualization," allows network administrators to run software applications previously dependent upon a specific hardware platform--such as Microsoft Windows or Apple's Macintosh operating system (OS)--on network-connected devices that do not support the native OS. In other words, a Windows-based machine might be able to support a software application designed specifically for use on an Apple computer or a Linux-based machine, and vice versa.

By "virtualizing" these software applications, network technicians also are able to beam them out across the entire network, cutting down on the time it would take to install copies of these software programs individually and giving technicians a means to conduct maintenance and troubleshooting from a single, centralized location.

Advocates of the movement say software virtualization solutions, or SVS, as they are commonly called, will increase the longevity of aging hardware devices, put an end to platform-specific software applications, and potentially shift the focus of the entire software industry from a licensing model to a more subscription-based approach--all of which would greatly simplify IT management.

Though the ability to beam individual software applications from a centralized server to an individual desktop is nothing new--companies such as Sun Microsystems have been pushing the benefits of these types of solutions in schools for years--network administrators say the process of software virtualization is revolutionary because it represents the first time users have been able to create fully functional "virtual" copies of both software applications and the operating systems on which these programs run.

The concept, though still in its infancy, has some technology engineers envisioning a day in the not-too-distant future when computers--desktop and laptop machines alike--will serve as simple conduits, or blank slates, with the indiscriminate ability to run any type of software application on any operating system, regardless of manufacturer.

"There's really a battle royal brewing," said Jeffrey Hibbard, vice president of marketing for Ardence Inc., a Massachusetts-based maker of software virtualization solutions. Hibbard says the idea that schools, corporations, and other users of enterprise-size computer networks eventually could send different software applications out across their systems to remote devices--regardless of platform, manufacturer, or operating system--will revolutionize the relationship between hardware and software applications.