Quite recently, members of our team at IGEL were paying a visit to the European headquarters of a major client in Dublin who operate an estimated 3,500 desktops across the continent. We were a little bowled over when they told us that, having switched to using a thin client on the desktop, they had saved around €114,000 over the course of a year on electricity costs alone.
Such savings aren’t the only knock-on benefits of moving towards a thin client approach, with this particular financial gain complimented by other major boosts such as improved agility, efficiency, and security of their virtual desktop and application delivery systems.
However, whether software or hardware-based, when you take total cost of ownership into perspective, you will get a very compelling case as to why any organisation should ‘go thin’.
IGEL is a world leader in thin and zero client solutions, producing one of the industry’s widest range of offerings in this space, based on Linux and Microsoft Windows, allowing customers to access a broad spectrum of server-based infrastructures and applications.
While clients may be convinced by the thin client model in terms total cost of ownership, there may well be a debate as to what version of the technology they go for. Until quite recently, thin clients were generally seen as a hardware device which attach to the network.
One clear, and rapidly developing, trend that we’ve seen in the market is increasing use of the software thin client — a market shift so strong that it now represents about 40% of IGEL thin client shipments in Ireland, the UK and the United States.
The concept of a software-based, thin client operating system has become a far more prevalent conversation with clients. This market, in which we were trailblazers, has grown significantly.
No wonder when the capabilities are so impressive — take one of the products available under this banner, the IGEL Universal Desktop Conversion (UDC2) software which helps businesses convert old PCs, laptops or thin clients from different manufacturers to IGEL desktops.
A highly cost-effective way to extend the life of an organisation’s current desktops, it delivers a cloud or server-based computing architecture and can produce a shorter return on investment when migrating to a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment.
Interest in UDC2 surged in the wake of the Windows XP migration issue that caused so many businesses a headache this year. What we found is that many companies who are trying to stay compliant at the desktop will have a PC-based infrastructure that is not necessarily at the end of its working life so what the business in question is hoping to do is maintain that infrastructure at a very low cost base.
“The concept of a software-based, thin client operating system has become a far more prevalent conversation”
Rather than looking at it and saying ‘well because we now have to migrate to a new operating system there’s necessity to change our hardware’ — a process that can be very expensive — they wanted a viable alternative.
UDC2 allows them to combine existing PC hardware and thin client operating system which comes complete with centralised remote management. Companies can also continue to utilise existing hardware with the help of a thin client operating system such as IGEL Linux 5.
The standardisation of client hardware becomes a relatively simple process in this regard. UDC2 allows the IGEL OS to be installed on virtually any PC hardware, be it existing on new, mobile or within the four walls of a CEO’s office.
Converted devices can then be used efficiently and securely managed over a network, or over the internet, using IGEL’s Universal Management Suite (UMS) software, saving IT administration time and money. Indeed, that’s possibly the biggest issue for many clients — how you manage what is on the desktop from a remote perspective.
In our case, whether dealing with a hardware or software thin client remotely, UMS offers a powerful and intuitive management software for easy deployment and administration throughout any size organisation.
Keeping support costs at a minimum, it reduces the desktop visit by the PC administrator down to virtually zero to the point where generally the only reason they need to be called in is if a device physically breaks. It is, I suppose, a very effective way of sweating the asset as it were and that seems to be one of the driving factors in the surge of interest in this particular market.
Over the course of 2014, we intend to establish a clear market number one position in Ireland with regards to both hardware and software thin clients. Our standing in the market was emphasised in a recent report from the well-respected International Data Corporation (IDC) which stated that during 2013 we were the fastest growing thin client leader both here in Ireland as well as the in UK.
In total, with regards to hardware thin client products, the IDC report showed a year-on-year growth of 58%in the UK and a phenomenal 150% in Ireland. Alongside that boost in hardware terms, we’ve also seen a major growth sales of our software thin client solution.
While in Ireland we deal solely through the channel we certainly have a good overview of the market and the feedback which has come back is that Government departments, semi-state bodies, enterprise environments right the way down to SMEs are addressing the thin client issue.
Certainly, as the IDC figures emphasises, we’ve grown significantly in Ireland though at the same time I’d emphasises that this has happened without us having to increase our channel partner numbers to achieve that, which tells you that our reseller partners here are the right ones.
As the year progresses we’ll continue to press the case for choosing a thin client approach. The debate, while it involves a number of different elements between hardware, software and remote management, will still, in most cases, come back to total cost of ownership and that’s an argument we see thin client technologies winning every time.
Simon Richards is managing director of IGEL Technology.
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