University Uses BitTorrent to Distribute Patches to 6,500 PCs

It would be impossible for anyone to argue that the most common BitTorrent use is piracy, but stories like the one out of INHOLLAND University may result in a different slew of adopters. This university houses over 6,500 desktop computers in ten different locations, and in order to distribute required patches, over twenty different servers were kept for the purpose. Then, the process of actually distributing the patches to all of the computers took around four days.

After much contemplation, the university decided to go with BitTorrent for the task, and they must be sure glad they did – it cut the time from four days to four hours! If that wasn’t great enough, the fact that BitTorrent distributes the files in between clients meant that they were able to cut their server use from two dozen to only two.

It’s uses like this that go to show just how incredible the BitTorrent technology is. For this university, it won’t only be a time-saver, but an energy saver as well, both on the human and electrical side.

“Let me put it this way: if INHOLLAND wants to migrate to Windows Vista, they only have to send out an image through BT. All 6,500 desktops can be migrated overnight in two hours’ time—with one push of a button. It’s a real migration killer. Migration used to mean a lengthy and trying process. At INHOLLAND, we took a different approach.”

Source: Ars Technica