LAconsult
New Member
- Reaction score
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- Location
- Los Angeles
I'm very interested in thin computing. The concept is basically that computers are overpowered for many users these days - users only utilize something like 25% of a traditional computer. Another plus is no moving parts, and longer life span.
I got a demo from NComputing a while back and was pretty impressed with the product, their support etc and even installed 3 of the units for a customer who pretty much saw instant ROI (as opposed to purchasing 3 brand new computers).
I'm debating myself over offering this on a proposal due soon for an insurance company. Most of their work is done over the internet- like pricing quotes, email etc. They use MS Office of course, and Youtube/Facebook is allowed. I'm wondering if a solution like this will work for them- either by using one of the popular thinclient vendors or using something like MS MultiPoint server. Has anyone done anything similar?
The pros I see are:
No moving parts, longer lasting, cheaper, 70% less power consumption, a more centralized storage for data (with the right backup solution helps with business continuity/disaster recovery).
Best of all for the customer, there's less support costs- as I would only be managing the server and therefore, less end user specific issues, less antivirus licenses etc.
The cons:
Less support costs! With the MSP model I can't justify charging a monthly fee to support a thinclient because really, there's no work to be done since everything is stored/coming from the server itself. Also, they probably won't be replacing thinclients any time soon - probably 7 years as opposed to say 3 on a traditional PC. Is there a support model that is of mutual benefit here?
I got a demo from NComputing a while back and was pretty impressed with the product, their support etc and even installed 3 of the units for a customer who pretty much saw instant ROI (as opposed to purchasing 3 brand new computers).
I'm debating myself over offering this on a proposal due soon for an insurance company. Most of their work is done over the internet- like pricing quotes, email etc. They use MS Office of course, and Youtube/Facebook is allowed. I'm wondering if a solution like this will work for them- either by using one of the popular thinclient vendors or using something like MS MultiPoint server. Has anyone done anything similar?
The pros I see are:
No moving parts, longer lasting, cheaper, 70% less power consumption, a more centralized storage for data (with the right backup solution helps with business continuity/disaster recovery).
Best of all for the customer, there's less support costs- as I would only be managing the server and therefore, less end user specific issues, less antivirus licenses etc.
The cons:
Less support costs! With the MSP model I can't justify charging a monthly fee to support a thinclient because really, there's no work to be done since everything is stored/coming from the server itself. Also, they probably won't be replacing thinclients any time soon - probably 7 years as opposed to say 3 on a traditional PC. Is there a support model that is of mutual benefit here?
