Linux Online - Fairfax County Schools Turn To Linux For Business Intelligence

Fairfax County Schools Turn To Linux For Business Intelligence


Publication:	Information Week	Date:	Jun 15 2004
Reporter:	Larry Greenemeier

Fairfax County (Va.) Public Schools wants to give its teachers access to business-intelligence tools they can use to analyze their students' attendance data, grades, and test scores. The school district's plan for doing this involves moving its Oracle database and Business Objects Crystal Enterprise business-intelligence software from Windows to Linux. With the launch last week of Business Objects' Crystal Enterprise 10 for Linux, Fairfax is a step closer to that goal.

The current data query, analysis, and reporting system consists of a homegrown education decision support data warehouse as well as Windows-based Oracle and Crystal Enterprise. An adequate setup for reaching 2,000 administrators and guidance counselors, says Gary Policastro, coordinator of data services for Fairfax County Public Schools. The problem is cost effectively scaling the system to accommodate an additional 18,000 users.

"We would have to buy four times the number of [Intel] servers to run Oracle on Windows as opposed to Linux," Policastro says.