NComputing Honored for Empowering 1.8 Million Andhra Pradesh Students with Low-Cost Computing Access

NComputing wins the “Digital Learning Initiative of the Year” Award

New Delhi, September 1, 2009: – NComputing, the world’s leading provider of ultra low-cost computing, announced that its massive educational computing project in Andhra Pradesh has been awarded the “Initiative of the Year” at eINDIA 2009—India’s largest computing conference. The conference showcases the best IT practices and initiatives and brings together technical experts, government officials, business leaders, and stakeholders.

A distinguished panel of senior government officials, industry executives, renowned education analysts, and journalists nominated the NComputing shared computing implementation in 5,000 Government schools throughout Andhra Pradesh for the Best Initiative/Policy of the year. NComputing emerged a winner after a rigorous selection process and voting by the people of India.

The Andhra Pradesh project outfitted 5,000 schools across the state with computer labs to teach computer skills to 1.8 million rural and poor students, thus preparing them for a future in the digital economy. The government needed a technology that is affordable, simple to install, and easy to maintain. “The NComputing solution was chosen after multiple stages of deliberations,” stated Mr. Suresh Chanda, Education Secretary of Andhra Pradesh. “Many factors, like long-term sustainability, power saving, infrastructure costs, and scale were considered, and we are pleased that computing access has been created for 1.8 million students around the state, most of whom have never had the opportunity to even touch a computer.”

The Andhra Pradesh government estimates it saved 50 percent in computer equipment and will save 70 percent in support and maintenance. Electricity is limited or unreliable at many of the schools, which are located in some of the most remote parts of the state and rely on generators to run the computer labs. The NComputing solution uses just 1 watt of electricity, making it a model for sustainable, energy-efficient computing for regions where access to power is too expensive, unpredictable, or non-existent.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Manish Sharma, Vice President, NComputing Asia Pacific said, “We are delighted to win this prestigious award. We thank the Government of Andhra Pradesh for considering NComputing’s shared computing technology for its ambitious initiative to equip its schools with IT education in 21st century. And we thank the people of India for their support, too. But we are most proud of the fact that our solution will help the students who are learning on them.”

The NComputing solution is based on a simple fact: today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of applications use only a small fraction of the computer’s capacity. NComputing taps the unused capacity in a PC and shares it among multiple users as if each person had their own computer. Each person enjoys a full PC experience by connecting their own monitor, keyboard, and mouse to an NComputing access device, which is then connected to the shared PC. The access devices snap into place in seconds, are almost impossible to break, and save on maintenance costs because only the shared PC requires ongoing service or upgrading.

NComputing is rapidly becoming the most important technology in education throughout the world. In addition to Andhra Pradesh, a dozen other Indian states have deployed NComputing. In the United States, over ten thousand schools use NComputing for affordable and eco-friendly digital learning. In Macedonia, every public school student has a computer at their desk through NComputing’s shared computing technology. Over 140 countries have deployed NComputing shared computing technology in their schools, government offices and hospitals.

The eIndia award is the latest of many accolades, including the PCQuest award for maximum social impact in India, the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation award, the Gartner Cool Vendor Award, the Frost and Sullivan Green Computing award, as well as numerous other awards including from CES, Deloitte, CeBit, and ExpoComm.

About NComputing, Inc.

NComputing, Inc. is the fastest growing desktop virtualization company in the world with nearly two million seats sold in more than 140 countries. The company’s award-winning, patented technology lowers desktop computing costs, improves manageability, and reduces both energy consumption and e-waste. It is the perfect solution for leveraging the power and potential of PCs and cloud computing. For more information, visit http://www.ncomputing.com.

About eINDIA 2009:

eINDIA 2009 is a unique platform for knowledge sharing in different domains of ICT for development and facilitates multi-stakeholder partnerships and networking among governments, industry, academia and civil society organisations of different countries, including the host country- India. The objective is to bring together ICT experts, practitioners, business leaders and stakeholders of the region onto one platform, through keynote addresses, paper presentations, thematic workshops and exhibitions.

The eINDIA Award programme is held annually alongside the eINDIA conference proceedings. eINDIA Awards are open for all national and international government organisations, civil society organisations, bi-lateral, multi-lateral developmental organisations and enterprises who have transformed social development opportunities into a sustainable social enterprise through innovative use of ICTs. Apart from the general category of awards eINDIA have special categories for performers who manifest extraordinary achievements in different domains with individual capacity and efforts.

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