Category: Energy Savings

Thin clients use less energy than PCs. They also don’t require cooling like PCs. Thin clients also have much smaller form factors so the amount of energy used to manufacture, transport and dispose of thin clients is much less than a traditional PC.

From the Factory Floor to the Front Office

Tom Jordan

Over the course of the last decade, the growth of thin client computing in factories and industrial environments has continued to increase as demand has steadily risen.   In these facilities, where environmental and safety factors are often the primary influence when deciding on a reliable computing platform, there is a definite need for technology that replaces the PC.  As a machine, the PC is not intended to operate in an area filled with vibration, airborne particulates, or hazardous gases.   Such concerns and factors explain why there is constant growth in the industrial thin client computing arena.  But this beckons the question, if industrial operations continue moving to the thin client because they HAVE TO, then what is the impetus for the front office CHOOSING TO? [...]

Real World ThinManager | Part 9

Kevin West

Transportation

PROBLEM:
• IT and production are in separate facilities.
• IT was losing valuable resources while traveling to other sites for maintenance.

SOLUTION:
• ThinManager Remote Administration allows IT to control and manage a remote site from one location.

Many companies have one IT department that covers a number of locations requiring the IT staff to make regular visits to the other plants for maintenance and repair.

Using standard ThinManager utilities this same staff has access to all remote sites allowing the IT staff to manage them from a central location. They can even shadow sessions and view process and load statistics. [...]

Real World ThinManager | Part 7

Kevin West

Food Production

PROBLEM:
• Night-shift worker installed an application with a virus on a PC.
• The infected PC controlled the HVAC system and could not close vents for fumigation.
• The plant had to stop production for 4 days to allow re-scheduling of the required treatment.

SOLUTION:
• Thin clients prevent access to operating system.

Fumigation of a large food production site takes careful planning and coordination to guarantee safety and prevent contamination. Fumigations are scheduled during employee holidays to prevent production interruption. [...]

Real World ThinManager | Part 6

Kevin West

Manufacturing in a Dusty Environment

PROBLEM:
• As many as 3 PCs failing each week requiring IT and maintenance support.

• Up to 6 hours of lost production time for each failure.

SOLUTION:
• No moving parts mean that ThinManager Ready thin clients are more reliable.
• Failures can be replaced by operator in 15 minutes or less..

A manufacturing plant had PCs in a dusty environment. The fans sucked in dust and debris causing overheating and failure after about a year. Since the company had 200 PCs, several had to be replaced each week. [...]

Real World ThinManager | Part 3

Kevin West

Cheese Manufacturing

PROBLEM:
• Humid environment causing frequent PC failures.

SOLUTION:
• Replaced PCs with thin clients
• Thin clients are more reliable and less sensitive to harsh environments than PCs.
• Small form factor allows thin clients to be placed in a protective panel to combat humidity.

Part of the cheese making process requires a saltwater rinse to cure newly made cheese as it passes through an extruder. The mist from the process coats the entire room with a thick condensation. Because of the requirements of the food manufacturing process every surface is hosed down each day with strong cleansers to maintain sterility. Even though bags of silica gel were stacked in the panels to try to protect the PCs from the moisture, the elements were still affecting the PCs as fans circulated air through them for cooling. [...]

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. [...]