Proposal

Narrative

The Department of Urban and Regional Planning (URP) uses Apporto Virtual Desktops to provide off-campus students access to course required software and networking resources. The desktops run on robust, GPU enabled, hardware to ensure students can complete they work quickly and efficiently. We are requesting funding for two new servers so we can retire our existing servers which have been the primary infrastructure for what was previously our Citrix virtual desktops environment and now Apporto environment. The servers are six years old requiring more upkeep causing reduced availability to students. The new servers will allow us to continue providing the now critical capability to students. The new server will slightly expand capacity for more concurrent users as enrollment in URP courses has surged by 51% and 47% in Spring 2024 and Spring 2025, respectively. The desktops are not only available to students in the Urban Planning Department, but to any students who has ever taken an URP course during their time at FAU. In our session tracking Urban Planning Desktops in Apporto we see dozens of unique students use the virtual desktop on a daily basis. The ability for off-campus students to run resource intensive applications such as AutoCAD, Adobe CC, ArcGIS, Sketchup and others while mapping drives from on-campus file servers to access large datasets has been a game changer for how URP can teach courses. The Urban Planning field requires proficiency with these applications while working with large amounts of data. These new servers will allow ALL students the ability access what is required in URP courses irrespective of their personal computer hardware or location they are work from.

Facilities

No renovations are required.

Hardware Requirements

PowerEdge R760 | $ 30,163.81 each | Qty 2 | Total $ 60,327.62

Software Requirements

No additional software required

Personnel Costs

No additional personnel cost. Urban Planning IT staff will integrate the servers into our Apporto environment.

Other Costs

No additional costs are associated with this project.

Timeline

If funds are awarded, the servers will be purchases and installed immediately.

Sustainability

The Department of Urban and Regional Planning will work to maintain the optimal operating capacity for the servers to ensure their longevity.

Resource Matching

The Department of Regional Planning was a part of the search committee to identify a vendor to replace Citrix which ultimately became Apporto. In addition to the time and resources put into that effort URP pays the licensing cost of Apporto and Nivdia licenses on an annual basis. Annual Apporto: $3,600 Nvidia: $1,220

Implementing Organization

The Department of Urban and Regional Planning IT will implement.