I stopped by the Family Academy on a recent morning to sit in on one of Hornik's philosophy classes. The day’s lesson was on the difference between street crime and white collar crime. Kids were surfing the net for information on Bernie Madoff.

As a test, we unplugged one of the computers, a Dell Latitude c510 purchased in 2005, from Neverware’s system and powered it up next to one connected to the Juicebox, just to get a sense of how things were before the change. Before the old machine could fully boot up to the home screen, the Neverware unit was up and running, opening Internet Explorer and streaming video from CNN without a hitch. With the old machines, confessed Hornik, it could sometimes take as long as ten minutes to turn them on and access a single website.

With the old machines, it could sometimes take as long as ten minutes to turn them on and access a single website

The new system has changed how the students interact, not just with their day-to-day school work, but all the modern obligations requiring them to stay connected. “It was really frustrating before,” said Olaoluwa Onabanjo, a senior in Hornik’s class. “The computers were so slow and when you did get them work, sometimes they would just shut down, like for no reason. So you would be scared to use them cause you could forget to save and then lose all your work.” With Neverware’s system in place, Onabanjo has begun staying after school to work on her college applications. “It’s great because you could do some work, save it to the web, and feel sure when you come back it will still be there.”

In order to allay privacy concerns around student data, Neverware’s system is a private cloud which exists on site at the school. Even If the internet connection went down, the virtual desktops would continue to run so long as the Juicebox on premises had power. All the machines at the Family Academy run Windows. “In the New York City school system the majority of schools have licenses through Microsoft, but if someone decided to use a different operating system, we could support that as well,” said Hefter.

A few students sneaked glances at their smartphones during class, quick to pocket them when Mr. Hornik was walking close by. Many education technology specialists say that the ability to bring your own device (BYOD), will be a powerful trend over the next decade, allowing students to work on the go with the phones and tablets they are most familiar with. “We could support any device that connects to the Neverware network, wired or wireless,” says Hefter. “But there are security risks and licensing requirements that make this very complex, so we’re not focusing on that right now.”

The Family Academy was the first school to sign up with Neverware. Since then the company has signed on two additional schools and is in active discussion with around 50 more. “For now we’re focused on just the New York City public school system,” says Hefter. “It makes it easier to sell to one client with one set of licenses and procedures. It would be a very big client base on its own.”

Financial savings are one part of the picture for New York City. The environmental gains are another. “We have been able to obtain, through the City Surplus program, machines that various city agencies have deemed completely obsolete,” says Hornik. “We got computers from the department of Probation in the Bronx, from the Police Pension fund in downtown Manhattan, monitors from agencies like Small Business Services. With Neverware, these computers run like new.” Instead of paying to dispose of units, the city can recycle them for productive use. More computers in classrooms and fewer gathering dust on the shelf.