Arizona State University journalism students once jumped from workstation to workstation, reporting on PCs and editing on Macs, which delayed production in a fast-paced newsroom until college IT officials at the school installed virtualization technology that allowed the operating systems to run cohesively.
The 300 digital workstations at the university’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication were simplified in 2006 when technology administrators purchased a desktop solution that let students access every high-end writing and editing program they needed on Macintosh computers, keeping students at a single workstation.
Before installing the solution, the students had to use PCs when their class work required Associated Press Electronic News Production System, but they had to move to another computer to finish work on Final Cut Pro, which is only available on Macs.