Caching optimises your network by storing web content and serving it from your LAN. So you:
- Save bandwidth – typically 20-40%
- Deliver faster web access to your users
- Can monitor web usage
The internet is a powerful tool in the classroom and is a pressing need across the curriculum. Delivering internet-enabled tools and content in the classroom is a proven component for transforming education*. Research across thousands of schools demonstrates that schools employing a 1:1 student-computer ratio – and key implementation factors – outperform other schools.
Adequate bandwidth is vital to the success of classroom internet initiatives:
- For many schools around the world, bandwidth is still scarce and expensive. Here web caches are the obvious answer. In simple cost savings alone, payback is rapid and return on investment very high.
- Others enjoy high capacity and relatively cheap bandwidth, yet that bandwidth is under continuous pressure to support even more bandwidth-intensive content – your teachers want to show video and educational web content to their classes, but slow loading times are leaving teachers frustrated, children disengaged and lesson time lost. Deploying caches in local branches and core networks to optimise distribution of HTTP content frees capacity for this additional and sometimes high priority traffic.
*Project Red: national study into the factors that make U.S. K-12 technology implementations successful. http://one-to-oneinstitute.org/project-red/transformational-change