What began 10 years ago as a bright idea in the mind of one IBM engineer has now become a mainstay of most medium to large scale IT infrastructures. Terminal Services and Windows based Thin Clients have risen on the wave of "Total Cost of Ownership" (TCO) from their inauspicious beginnings and are now widely deployed with a near 100% rate of success. Even as the sales of workstation PC's continues to drop, Windows terminal manufacturers see increasing demand and improving sales. Much of this success can be attributed to the fact that a transition from workstation PC architectures and their high maintenance costs to Windows based Thin Clients and a lower TCO is relatively seamless.
Thin Clients can be deployed on top of existing Windows PC network architectures and can run native Windows 16 and 32-bit applications reinstalled to Terminal Servers with little or no code modification. Standard Windows NT, 2000 and 2003 technologies like authentication, security, policies and profiles remain intact. Thin Client screens look and feel no different than their Windows workstation counterparts. Interactions between Windows based terminals, Windows servers, and workstations remain unchanged.
According to fairly extensive analysis by the Gartner Group, the overall TCO benefit of Thin Client terminals over standard PCs is about 32 percent. They found that much of this saving comes from the fact that PCs are not typically locked down (i.e., the users can install their own software), are not managed (i.e., lack tools for software distribution, remote control, inventory) and are not maintained through an active asset management process. Thin-client deployment also offers a quick return on investment, with a payback period of three months for Thin Clients compared with unmanaged PCs.
The analysis was performed using Gartner's own Ti2 ("TI squared") software, with assumptions based on 2,500 desktops and 35servers accessed by users from a central site and from two remote sites. The overall annual TCO is $12.9 million (or $5,160 per user) for Thin Clients, compared with $17.1 million (or $6,840 per user) for standard Windows 2000 PCs.
| Direct | $5,276,197 | $6,710,772 |
| Indirect | $5,478,388 | $10,402,545 |
| Migration Costs | $2,176,204 | |
| Total TCO | $12,930,789 | $17,113,318 |
| Payback Period | 0.34 months |
Source: Gartner Research
Direct costs included staffing and administration costs for hardware and software, as well as acquisition and maintenance costs for the hardware (including network equipment and a Thin Client management tool, such as ACP ThinManager). Indirect costs include peer support, casual learning, self-support, file and data management and formal learning. While fewer people are needed to manage the Terminal Servers than for the 2,500 PCs, their labor costs are higher.
The inclusion of migration cost is very likely on the high side, especially if the Thin Clients are being added to replace PCs as the PCs become obsolete - in that case an even higher cost would be incurred for switching to a new PC than for switching from a PC to a Thin Client.
While Thin Clients have a lower TCO than traditional distributed PCs, there are several factors that combine to give ACP's products running under ACP's ThinManager an advantage over competing Thin Clients:
ACP ThinManager |
Other Thin Clients |
| One Step “Quick Replacement ” | Client-side hardware and session configuration required for replacement |
| Select your target client configuration from the ACP boot screen (replace or create a new configuration) | |
| “Auto-create” client configuration | N/A |
| Simply attach ACP enabled client and a configuration will be created automatically | |
| “Remote Boot” (ACP enabled, no local flash device required). | Firmware boot (also adds cost to clients) |
| Instant upgrade every client reboot | |
| “Remote Flash” (ACP enabled with local flash device) | Re-flash requires return to manufacturer or dedicated support resources |
| Re-flashes local flash memory, manual or automatic selectable on reboot | |
| Remote configuration maintenance | Configuration changes must be made at the client device requiring physical access. |
| Make changes and reboot remotely without physical access to the client device | |
| Remote System Management | Single System Management Node |
| ThinManager remote connect and management capabilities from any authorized server or workstation | |
| Terminal Server system visualization | Thin Client only views |
| See Thin Clients and the terminal servers they are connected to |
Imagine the Thin Client enterprise system discussed above with 2,500 client devices. One configuration change requirement at each of the 2,500 devices could require physical access to each individual device. If that change was a new firmware release it might even require return shipment of every client to the manufacturer for the re-flashing process. ACP ThinManager remote configuration and management features with "Remote boot" and "Remote Flash" for firmware-based clients do away with the need for physical access and lowers TCO.
With the broadest range of features, the best selection of clients and the lowest overall TCO, ThinManager and ACP Enabled Thin Clients are the best choice for Enterprise Thin Client Systems.
For more information on ACP Industrial Thin Client computers, please visit our web site at http://www.thinmanager.com
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