So, what should sysadmins keep in mind when allocating new Macs in an educational infrastructure? There are two major approaches.

First, consider consolidated replacement. While typical purchasing decisions (particularly for K-12 districts) might see new Macs distributed throughout various grade levels, classrooms or departments, this approach will create extra headaches for administrators because it will require two disk images that are more or less identical. Focusing hardware replacement in specific areas, where an entire high school or department gets all new computers, is much more effective because the administrator only needs to have a single image for that batch of hardware. That yields a significant time savings in a hardware rollout -- as well as a savings in the resources to maintain that image.

This also gives you the opportunity to look at departments or classrooms that might benefit from additional changes in the process. You may notice that one lab could also do with the introduction of Apple Remote Desktop for monitoring, or that a middle or that a high school art class that works with photography could benefit from iPhoto for class projects.

Another option is identifying which grades or departments get Intel Macs. Typically, new computers are give to those classrooms that will get the most use out of the increased power and features. Media labs and graphics design classrooms in colleges are often first on the list for new Macs. However, if these labs will be working with applications not yet available as Universal binaries, then installing new Intel Macs might not offer much gain in performance and could even wind up slowing things down. While a majority of non-Universal applications may be in use throughout schools, those that require more computing power, such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, will be the ones hit hardest by relying on Rosetta emulation.

This is also an ideal time to look at the applications in use. Several may not be available as Universal binaries or may still require the "classic" Mac OS to run. This is particularly true of lower elementary grads that tend to stay with older educational games year after year. However, there may be new options that you can offer that are universal. This can give you a chance to work with teachers to not only develop a strategy for integrating new Macs but adding newer tools in the classroom as well.