Re: [Nolug] Beowulf Cluster and Thin Clients

On 4/22/2011 3:22 PM, Brad Bendily wrote:
> You can potentially make those $1000 desktops serve up 2-4 Terminals
> (on thin clients) but that may be more
> trouble than it's worth. Part of the problem with the whole "Thin
> client" is that they're not that cheap.
> You're talking $200-$400 a piece. When you can buy a usable dell for
> $200-$400 new or used.
>

We had this discussion at my current employer in my last role there and
this sounds similar to the reasoning they had for sticking with
desktops. Problem was that idea that thin clients are "not that cheap"
is that people only seem to look at the initial costs, but not the
recurring costs. We were looking at replacing a call center full of
desktops with thin clients. The initial costs slightly more (we would
have needed a virtualization infrastructure for the desktops), however,
here were some big (recurring) savings that management missed:

1. MUCH lower power costs - the typical thin client uses a fraction of
that power of a desktop...
2. Lower power costs mean lower cooling costs. With over 100+ desktops
to be replaced, each generating heat, we would have saved dramatically
on the cooling costs for the building.
3. Lower support costs - thin clients rarely break the way that PCs
break, so you don't have users sitting idle when the hard drive crashes,
etc. When the user's "desktop" would break, all that would have been
needed was a new VM created and the settings merged to it - total
downtime was about 10 minutes.
4. Longer lifespan - because it is just a terminal, you don't have to
replace it nearly as often.
5. Ease of use for users - they could more easily move from computer to
computer without loosing settings, etc.

In the end the thin clients lost out only because of the initial costs.
   Unfortunately, when a business operates in terms of what do we do
this quarter or this year, who needs to worry about the long term.

This problem seems to exist in the business world when it comes to IT -
technology can save a company a lot recurring costs for an initial
investment, but companies refuse to make that initial investment.
Getting virtualization in the door was supposedly a bit of a battle and
now that it is in place, companies can't get enough of it to the point
that some companies are over-virtualizing the datacenter.

J
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Received on 04/22/11