Thin Client Systems
Reduce your costs by reducing energy consumption and maintenance costs of your computing systems.
Thin Client Systems are cheaper, more ergonomic and environmentally friendly!
Thin Clients. What are they ?
A Thin Client is a computer based on a different computer (the server) to meet it's computing needs. The sole function of a thin client is to provide the interface between the server and other equipment typically found at a terminal of a corporation (display, headphones, keyboard).
How are thin clients better ?
In comparison with traditional way of organising computing infrastructures which is using a full computer for each single work station, a thin clients based solution would offer significant benefits.
- Single Point Failure. All work stations in a company would rely on the server working properly.
- Extremely cheap workstation hardware.
- Simplicity of work station equipment. No need for repairs, or pinpointing the source of malfunctions. Replacement is both easy and cheap.
- Central management of workstation software. Installation, uninstallation and software modification for all or groups of your workstations is made easy.
- Extremely low power consumption. The power consumption of the average supply unti of a computer ranges between 150 Watt and 400 Watt while for Thin Clients it rarely surpasses 5 Watts.
What kind of hardware is needed ?
For the installation of a Thin Client infrastracture, a server with adequate computer power to cover the computing needs of your company is necessary as well as a number of Thin Clients and a network infrastructure to connect the clients to the server.
Client Administration.
While the troubleshooting and upgrade handling of hardware for a traditional computing unit is a process that consumes time and requires the intervention of trained personnel, in the case of a Thin Client it's a very straightforward procedure. In case of malfunction you just replace the device with a new one while in case of an upgrade you only need to upgrade the server which will upgrade your total computing power and distribute this to workstations within your company as per demand.
As for software, it's possible to install, upgrade or modify software on a user or administrator level. User software changes don't require special rights and only affect the accounts that made them, while administrator modification can affect the entire set of Thin Clients in your company , or only certain groups within them. Thus software upgrades and administrations is made both easy and fast.
Extremely low power consumption
The power you would consume by using 20 computers with an average of 8 hours of online time per day and with an average consuption of 200 Watts per unit would be 8320 KWh every year. The respective power consuption of a thin client infrastructure would be 124 KWh every year. This means you would have a power consuption decrease of 98,5%. Besides every argument made about the benefits to the enviroment by using a green computing infrastructure such as Thin Clients, you would also stand to gain a respectable amount from cuts made in power consumption. This way, not only would you help the environment by lowering power demands as well as CO2 emissions, but also benefit significantly on your anual budget.
Additional benefits.
Beyond the benefits in power consumption and easy administration and troubleshooting you also stand to gain from the following:
- Single Point Failure. All data will be stored securely on the server, and all computing will now occur on the server and thus providing a single point failure for your computing systems, which is easier to secure and maintain.
- This server is not just another computer. It's specifically designed to offer redundancy and failsafes on many different levels, to be readily expandable and easy to administrate.
- Portability. With a Thin Client infrastructure it is feasible to move workstations around in your company without actually having to do anything. Every single thin client can become the desktop belonging to a specific staff member just by logging in with his user account. This eliminates the need of having to buy corporate laptops to gain portability within the grounds of your company.
