Solutions

What are the opportunities for selling thin clients?

The personal computer has dominated the desktop for many years. Its ease of use, freedom for the user to add and execute programs of their choice as well as create, add and store their own data locally makes it a very popular choice for users. However for the IT Manager it is a different story. Security issues means that the PC has to be very closely managed. The PC is a very complex tool from both a hardware and software point of view and any failure is expensive to deal with could deprive the user of access to their applications for quite a long time. The PC generates heat and noise and uses a lot of power.

There is a need for a desktop solution which boots up quickly, is easy to configure and manage – preferably remotely; is easy to deploy, update and change in the event of device failure; is easily secured, uses little power and generates minimal heat and noise. Finally, an alternative solution must offer the user the same or better experience compared to his PC. This is the modern thin client.

The modern thin client solution can give users access to their applications and data in a multitude of different ways. In most cases, applications and data reside remotely in one location (the data centre).

The traditional method whereby the thin client remotely connects to a Windows server running Terminal Services has worked well for many years, but new solutions are now available which can offer greater performance or functionality for the more demanding user environments.

Virtual Desktops are being talked about – the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) allows for multiple virtual desktops to be created on servers, each with their own operating system and applications. So applications which could not easily be converted for use in a terminal services environment can now reside on separate desktops for authorised users. The virtual desktop is accessed via a thin client.

The use of “Zero” thin clients (i.e. with no flash memory and therefore no operating system) is now possible. They are able to act as a full computer by the individual provisioning of operating system and application, on demand. Now thin clients are able to be used in hugely demanding areas such as video editing and CAD/CAM applications, which would once have been an impossible platform for thin clients.

The Server Based Computing team within Avnet Technology Solutions would be delighted to discuss alternative approaches to the PC with you.

Please phone us on 01925 856932 or email sbc-uk@avnet.com.

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