Author: Tom Jordan

Marketing Lead for ThinManager - A Rockwell Automation Technology

ThinManagability

Tom Jordan

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If you’ve ever traveled through Baltimore you know that it is a heavily industrialized area. Out near the water you can see countless cranes and other industrial equipment moving large amounts of raw material, metals and scrap. It feels like the kind of town where a system integrator would feel right at home.

It is near this industrial area that Datability, a division of Kruse Controls, makes its home and its where we met up with Doug Coulter to discuss his experiences using our ThinManager thin client management solution. [...]

ACP’s New International Partners

Tom Jordan

ACP World Map

The last few months have been very busy for the ACP International team. The period between March and May has seen four new distributors begin working with ACP to promote and support ThinManager solutions in over a dozen countries.

We’d like to welcome the following new distributors to the ACP family!

  • Klinkmann Automation (Wonderware Finland)

Wonderware Finland (Klinkmann Automation) is already a familiar name to many of our customers who do business in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. Wonderware Finland will represent ACP not only in Finland, but as Wonderware Russia they will be able to provide much needed support and sales to a large clientele base in the former Soviet Union. As Klinkmann, they also have offices and will represent ACP in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine. During their current Russian roadshow, Klinkmann have been showing the benefits of ThinManager to interested clients in all major cities. [...]

Virtualization Basics Part 2

Tom Jordan

Beginning a Server Virtualization Project

In Part 1 of this series we discussed the four types of virtualization—application, desktop, server and storage virtualization. In this article we plan to focus specifically on server virtualization. While this article will look at virtualization in a general sense, we will link VMware’s terminology for virtual environments, since they are perhaps the most well-known of the virtualization platforms available, to some of the generic terms for those components.

Server virtualization is perhaps the best place to start when beginning a virtualization project. There are many reasons for this but one of the most important would be that it is a bit easier, and less costly than the other forms of virtualization. It is easier because IT can maintain complete control over the aspects of the changeover without disrupting end users.  Server Virtualization is less costly because you are consolidating hardware. Less hardware not only reduces physical overhead but also reduces the time that will be spent maintaining and upgrading the physical devices. It typically will mean that you simply repurpose the servers you have to handle the load or work of multiple servers. [...]

Virtualization Basics Part 1

Tom Jordan

Understanding Virtualization

We can’t assume that everyone knows and understands what virtualization is—we should perhaps assume the opposite.

Even though virtualization seems to be a ubiquitous technology, understanding what it does and how to manage it is still out of reach of many IT and Engineering managers.

Virtualization is essentially taking traditional hardware like servers and reducing the number of physical machines by converting most of them to virtual machines located within fewer of these physical devices. For example you could take 30 physical servers and reduce them to 5 physical servers that each have 6 virtual servers running inside them. [...]

Old School for New Technology

Tom Jordan

Jordan Engineering Builds a ThinManager Thin Client Solution “One Brick at a Time” for Canadian Precious Metals Company

There just aren’t many companies that run their businesses on old school principles. Regular face time with customers, doing a job right the first time, and giving back to the people around them to name a few. Jordan Engineering does all this and more. Giving indeed seems to be the secret ingredient for this integration company’s success.

CEO and founder, Sandra Murre has always worked hard to build success. Sandra and Jordan engineering share that success with their employees, their customers and the world around them. The profits from the business get split into thirds; one third is returned to the employees through profit-sharing, one third goes back into the business to improve customer service, fund growth and business performance and yet another third goes to charity. [...]

ThinManager Helps You Avoid the Stuxnet Virus

Tom Jordan

There is a new villain in the computer virus world and it is from the Stuxnet family of malware.  The Stuxnet attack exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows software, WinCCConnect, which is an integral component of the distributed control and SCADA systems that facilitate production operations in many process-manufacturing companies. The vulnerability would allow the virus to extract process data and possibly HMI screens.

The director and chief economist of the independent watchdog The US Cyber Consequences Unit Scott Borg says “Either the attacker is planning on stealing very valuable information or they are going to use this access to the control system to do bad things.” The virus’s purpose seems to be what can only be termed as industrial espionage as attackers could steal information on how plants are run to possibly extort money or influence manufacturers by taking away the competitive edge with the information obtained. [...]

Top 10 Advantages to Using ThinManager

Tom Jordan

We all know that ThinManager is great, but do you know all the ways ThinManager can help you?  Here are the top 10 advantages of using ThinManager:

1.  Security: ThinManager knows the best security is not letting the problem close enough to be an issue, so we’ve created a secure environment. Terminal Servers can be secured away from public access, USB ports are closed by default and there are no CD or floppy drives to compromise security.  With TermSecure™ we added a second level of security with features like having users access and privileges controlled by administrator, an Auto-login option, and a key blocking module. [...]

You’re Hired! How WinTMC Can Work for You

Tom Jordan

Imagine having the power to turn a PC work station into an easy to manage secure terminal in any industrial situation. Now imagine that work station being a simple and reliable system with increased functionality paired with decreased ownership cost. Your imagination is here.

With the addition of WinTMC, ThinManager provides a complete solution for organizations that need to use PCs as part of their terminal server network. For many network administrators, WinTMC may be the missing piece to help their network be more cost effective, productive and easier to manage. [...]

Use ThinManager to Shadow PCs

Tom Jordan

The other day I spoke with a company that wanted to monitor and control 400 PCs scattered around their plant.  Believe it or not, this is actually a job for ThinManager!

All that is needed is a ThinManager license and a copy of WinTMC for each PC.  In this case a single ThinManager Enterprise Server license would be the correct choice.  You would not even need a Terminal Server.  Because WinTMC also runs as a service, the administrator could use easily shadow and control each PC without even having the PC logged in. [...]