NetworkGulf has compiled and delivered a comprehensive consultancy report to Al Madar International School , Al Ain on their proposed migration to Linux and Open-source. This report outlines the advantages, possible problems and the way forward for the school in their migration plans. The report is being evaluated by the school management to decide on a suitable time frame to take the project further.

Al Madar International school , located at Al Ain, UAE, is part of the Bin Salem Group. They are one of the best schools in Al Ain and invest heavily in IT infrastructure to provide a very high quality of education.

Mr. Michel Bridi, Dy. Director of the school had been exposed to Linux and Open-Source from before and had been aware of the advantages that it offers to his school. Since joining the Al Madar School, he has been exploring options and looking for a suitable partner to migrate it's network to Linux.

Though he had approached many large IT companies in the UAE, none of them were able to offer a full and comprehensive solutions when it came to Linux and Open-Source. When his search finally brought him to us, he was already beginning to loose hope. NetworkGulf, with it's total commitment to Linux and prior experience in such large scale migrations, was able to understand the requirements and engage the school in a discussion immediately.

Based on our previous experience with such projects, we suggested a multi-stage process starting with a consultancy to understand the existing systems and find suitable solutions on Open-source to replace them. This stage was also expected to highlight any problem areas and identify a process and time-line for migration. This was accepted by the school management and retained us immediately for this first stage.

Out team of consultants and technicians spent almost 10 days with the school IT team to study their existing systems, understand the way the school works and identify and test suitable applications in Open-Source. Based on the information gathered at the school and the detailed tests done at our office, a report was prepared and presented to the school for their perusal and further action.

The report envisaged a LTSP based classroom network on Edubuntu along with TCM and FL_teacher tool for management of the class. Apart from the usual set of desktop applications, many of the existing Windows only applications were tested and made operational on WINE. The network applications included Moodle, Koha, Student Management System, a web based calendar and the school Intranet.

The school management in general and Mr. Bridi in particular has found the report to be very comprehensive and covering all aspects of the requirements of the school. Our technical team is on the standby to take up the migration as envisaged in our report as soon as the school ides to move forward.