A student needs a Windows-only statistics package for tonight’s assignment which they can’t run on their Chromebook. The software is installed in a campus lab that closes in an hour. By morning, the problem has become a support ticket for IT, and the student has missed an opportunity to learn.
Scenes like this repeat across campuses because academic software, student-owned devices, and traditional lab provision don’t always line up. Cross-platform software distribution closes that gap by giving students one place to access the applications they need, as they use the right delivery method for their device, location, operating system, and course to run them.
Access alone is only half the answer. IT teams also need to know whether students can find the right technology, which applications they use, where demand peaks, and which resources sit underutilized. That is where LabStats helps. Together, AppsAnywhere and LabStats connect software delivery with real usage data, giving institutions a clearer way to support remote learning, hybrid learning, campus labs, and student-owned devices.
Device ownership on campus is fragmented: students bring Macs, Chromebooks, Windows laptops, tablets of all ages and power levels, while much of the specialist software used in engineering, statistics, design, and research was built for a narrower environment – mostly Windows.
The result is a daily access gap that tends to affect those already underprivileged, who need to work while studying, can’t afford high-powered Windows devices or can’t always come on campus to do their work. The access to the software they need to be successful in their course can be dictated by the device they can afford. Access is directly linked with outcomes.
This gap also affects IT teams, with three added cost areas:
These university challenges become more visible right now, as the expectations of technology in higher education is that it disappears in the background, much like all the other technology students are used to: when students click launch, they expect it to work.
Solving them takes two things. First, a consistent and simpler way to deliver and manage academic software through AppsAnywhere. Second, reliable evidence showing how students use computers, physical labs, applications, and remote services through LabStats.
Cross-platform software distribution is the process of delivering software applications on multiple different operating systems or device types, such as Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, often in a browser without the need for client installation.
With AppsAnywhere, an institution can bring cloud delivery, application virtualization, local applications, web apps, servers, and existing VDI services into one portal. Access is device agnostic, and can be configured around the user, course, device type, operating system, hardware, and location. Where the local device is suitable, IT can use its processing power. Where it is not, an application can be delivered through cloud or virtual infrastructure instead.
For students, the experience is simple and seamless: sign in, find the app, and launch it. For IT, this means single package applications that work across all OS, centralized updates, pushing out bug fixes and new features simultaneously across all supported operating systems from one release pipeline and one place to deliver, configure, monitor, update, and control the software estate.
Purdue University’s College of Engineering shows what this looks like at scale. Its students needed access to demanding applications such as SolidWorks, NX, and MATLAB across multiple campuses and a wide range of personal devices. Purdue used AppsAnywhere to centralize 303 applications, bringing cloud, virtualized, server, native, web, and VDI delivery together in one platform. That gave students a more consistent route to course software while reducing the complexity carried by a central IT team.
Once software is easier to reach, the next question is whether the institution’s technology investment is well placed and well used.
LabStats brings together usage data for computers, applications, labs, and remote access. IT teams can see when devices are active, which software titles are used, how demand changes by location or group. Though detailed reports they can identify underutilized software licenses, computers or lab space, and set up scheduled reports and proactive alerts. Depending on the institution’s needs, LabStats can also surface student-facing campus device availability through LabMaps, which allows students to find free computers to sit at or log in virtually from their own device through the Remote Access Dashboard.
At Southern Cross University, LabStats data from more than 1,000 student-facing computers and shared hot desk spaces helped the team repurpose rooms, reallocate computer stations, and adjust software budgets around student need. The team discovered that there was significant dormant capacity within their existing estate, which they maximized with better sign posting and moving resources where needed.
Together, delivery and measurement create a useful loop:
That loop provides a strong foundation for other digital strategies and initiatives, such as AI adoption, as it’s based on demand, uses less of the infrastructure and is cost and resource sensitive.
Cloud computing is vital to cross-platform software distribution, but it does not need to carry every workload.
A well-designed higher ed cloud framework uses cloud capacity only when it’s absolutely needed, such as delivering Windows software to an incompatible device or providing the compute power needed for a demanding application. It uses local endpoints where they are capable and reserves virtual desktops and GPU-backed resources for the workloads that actually need them. Sending every application through expensive virtual infrastructure drives up cost. Relying entirely on student devices creates inequity. A mixed delivery model gives IT teams room to balance performance, access, and budget.
The cost implications for universities are significant, as the need for AI is driving a shortage of GPU and memory, with prices going up, as is institutions’ need for graphics-intensive engineering and design tools, research applications, and artificial intelligence software.
Queensland University of Technology used that flexibility to reduce their reliance on virtual desktops, resulting in more choice over cloud infrastructure spend and a model designed to scale without compromising access.
LabStats strengthens this cloud framework even further with usage data that helps institutions decide which applications to eliminate, virtualize, consolidate, or expand.
Cross-platform access can be a double edge sword for cybersecurity: if not set up and managed correctly, it can increase the attack surface, but when designed with security at the core, it increases protection.
Centralized lifecycle management through AppsAnywhere makes it easier for IT teams to update applications through its in-place update, without downtime or strict maintenance schedules, and with Cloud Delivery it’s done automatically, as soon as the update is available.
Virtualization allows applications to be containerized, so sandboxed and separated from other applications, reducing the attack surface, allowing any vulnerabilities to be isolated and contained without affecting other applications or systems.
AppsAnywhere also allows IT teams to configure access using context such as user group, device, operating system, hardware profile, and location. Existing directory attributes can determine which faculty, course, or student group receives an application license, while access can be restricted or revoked when requirements change.
That makes cybersecurity and compliance part of the delivery model rather than a separate process that students and IT have to navigate.
LabStats adds evidence to software licensing decisions. Concurrent usage, historical trends, and underutilized software reporting can show whether a license pool reflects genuine demand. Instead of renewing every title on precedent, IT can bring usage data into budget and compliance conversations.
Institutions don’t need to solve every compatibility issue in one move. A practical rollout can start with one faculty, a group of difficult applications, a set of student-facing labs, or a course with a clear BYOD requirement.
The University of Manchester followed a measured path, beginning with PC clusters and involving academics throughout planning and testing. In the first three months, AppsAnywhere recorded more than 14,800 application launches from over 2,700 unique users. The university connected the project to its Flexible Learning Strategy, making software access part of teaching improvement rather than treating it as a standalone IT replacement.
LabStats can give the pilot its baseline and its evidence. Teams can compare usage before and after a change, see whether application demand moves beyond physical labs, identify resources that can be reallocated, and share scheduled reports with stakeholders. That makes it easier to decide what works, what to expand, and what not to fund again.
Across the sector, there is industry-wide demand for evidence informed decisions, reducing waste and duplication, increasing productivity, and meeting student needs for flexible on demand access to their course software on their own devices. AppsAnywhere and LabStats are essential in meeting this demand, giving institutions the evidence and the tools to transform their IT provision.
Arrange a demo to see how AppsAnywhere and LabStats can support cross-platform software distribution at your institution.
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AppsAnywhere is a global education technology solution provider that challenges the notion that application access, delivery, and management must be complex and costly. AppsAnywhere is the only platform to reduce the technical barriers associated with hybrid teaching and learning, BYOD, and complex software applications, and deliver a seamless digital end-user experience for students and staff. Used by over 3 million students across 300+ institutions in 22 countries, AppsAnywhere is uniquely designed for education and continues to innovate in partnership with the education community and the evolving needs and expectations of students and faculty.
Register your interest for a demo and see how AppsAnywhere can help your institution. Receive a free consultation of your existing education software strategy and technologies, an overview of AppsAnywhere's main features and how they benefit students, faculty and IT, and get insight into the AppsAnywhere journey and post launch partnership support.
Register your interest for a demo and see how AppsAnywhere can help your institution. Receive a free consultation of your existing education software strategy and technologies, an overview of AppsAnywhere's main features and how they benefit students, faculty and IT, and get insight into the AppsAnywhere journey and post launch partnership support.
