Thin Client Computing - Keeping IT Costs Down

Recently we held several events across the country under the banner Thindustrial. 

With manufacturing and infrastructure facilities increasing their use of thin client computing within industrial settings this model can be an effective solution for companies looking to optimise their IT investments and create more secure and easy to manage IT infrastructures.  Today we'll explore some of ways it can help keep costs down.

Where can the savings be made by introducing thin client computing: 

• Low hardware costs
• Requires maintenance of just the server
• Longer life-span
• Less expensive software upgrades
• Easy scalability
• Less expensive to deploy
• Superior data protection / backups simplified
• Lower security threat
• Lower power usage
• Validated images w/o identical pc requirement
• No need to maintain image for every pc model

A study by IDC in 2005 found that thin client users experienced significant business benefits, "with the most significant and measurable benefit of migrating to Thin Client technology is the reduction of IT costs. Participants were able to reduce their annual spending on desktop hardware and software (OS) from $475 per system to $284 per system."
They also found users had a:

• Reduction in hardware and software costs by 40%
• Reduction in IT operations costs by 29%
• Increase in IT staff productivity by 78%
• Reduction in worker downtime by 88%

To find out more about savings you can make via thin client computing ACP have a great ROI calculator available here. 

Next Week: A look at thin client computing and energy savings