Happy Manufacturing Day

October 2, 2015July 29, 2016 Kevin West

Today, October 2nd, 2015, is Manufacturing Day. Manufacturing Day℠ is a celebration of modern manufacturing meant to inspire the next generation of manufacturers. This is an exciting opportunity as many manufacturers are opening their doors to the public today to offer tours and to show just how the manufacturing process works for them.

As a “tip of the cap” to all those in this great industry, we have put together a video about ThinManager in a sit down interview with ACP’s CEO, Matt Crandell, asking where it all started, and where it is going. ThinManager is the global leader in thin client management and industrial mobility. Without our partners and customers in the manufacturing industry, we simply would not be where we are today. [...]

Monthly Integrator Spotlight

May 29, 2013April 2, 2024 Tom Jordan

Using ThinManager to Drive a Cutting Edge Facility

Third Evolution Inc.

For years, businesses and governments have been talking more and more about the environmental impact of modern industrial manufacturing processes and the costs associated with conventional energy sources such as coal and oil. That combined with the projected increase in fossil fuel consumption in countries such as China and India has lead to a resurgence of new investment and research in the renewable energy commercialization sector.

Robert Maxfield, the Vice President and Control System Architect of Third Evolution, recently got to see just how cutting edge companies can be in this sector while deploying ThinManager in a new state of the art facility specializing in Biomethane capture and processing. “Our client originally came to us wanting to implement a Citrix XenDesktop thin client architecture into one of their existing facilities. Having worked with it before, I knew that ThinManager was much easier to deploy and operate as well as offering greater management capabilities, so I offered to show them proof of concept of our proposed architecture using Wonderware InTouch and ThinManager instead. After seeing it in person, they were sold.” [...]

Does Virtualization Really Provide ROI?

January 16, 2013September 15, 2014 Tom Jordan

Heading into 2013 the hot topic around the IT water cooler seems firmly focused on the “Virtualization War” being waged between Microsoft and VMware. There are arguments to be made on both sides of the debate and who will come out on top is anyone’s guess at this point. Microsoft has a history of coming to market late with a product, only to devour the entire market with a low price point. While Microsoft looks to finish buying out the current Virtualization Market, VMware has seemingly decided to ignore Virtualization as an “end game” and continues to push past it towards full cloud adoption to compete as a service to rival Microsoft Azure. [...]

Looking to the Cloud in 2013

January 9, 2013September 15, 2014 Tom Jordan

Every year as the calendar comes to an end, a new year invariably elicits statements, declarations, and discussions about what kind of year it will be. People proudly proclaim that this is they year they will lose that last ten pounds that has been hanging around, pundits make bold proclamations about the future of the political landscape, and industry professionals predict what the next wave will be to revolutionize their specific area of expertise.

For those of us who develop software, it has become clear that the prediction we need to be aware of is that 2013 will be the “boom or bust” year for all things cloud. Then again, that was also the same prediction we heard heading into 2012. And yet here we are again standing on the precipice of change. No one can deny that the last year saw great advances in the world of cloud computing, specifically the proliferation of the public cloud by companies such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Previously, cloud computing had been the province of smaller niche software companies and data storage centers. But as that business model showed gains in both popularity of adoption and profitability, the larger companies have finally committed their resources to capitalize on what has become a proven business model. [...]

Virtualization in an Industrial Environment (Part 3)

August 1, 2012October 2, 2012 Tom Jordan Leave a comment

This is the third and final part of our three part series focusing on the entire process of Virtualizing in an industrial environment. While there is a lot of talk about Virtualizing and VDI, we wanted to focus on the viability and deployment of Virtualization in an industrial and manufacturing environment which would speak to the concerns and difficulties specific to this industry.

Part 3: Managing Your Environments?

In Part 2 of this series, we discussed whether or not Virtualization is necessary once you’ve centralized, and, if it is, how far do you go. For most System Administrators, RDS is the easiest and most cost effective place to begin. The need to only install OS’s and applications once, and having them deploy to multiple clients, can provide enough time savings and reduced administrative headaches that Virtualization could very well just be an added cost to a system that already does everything the end user requires. [...]

Virtualization in an Industrial Environment (Part 2)

July 25, 2012July 27, 2012 Tom Jordan Leave a comment

This is the second in a three part article focusing on the entire process of Virtualizing in an industrial environment. While there is a lot of talk about Virtualizing and VDI, we wanted to focus on the viability and deployment of Virtualization in an industrial and manufacturing environment which would speak to the concerns and difficulties specific to this industry.

Part 2: How Much Virtualization is Needed?

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the need to centralize computer resources before considering whether or not to virtualize them. The vast majority of ThinManager customers use Remote Desktop Services (formerly Terminal Services) as their Centralization solution. One reason for this is that RDS is included with every Windows Server installation, so there are fewer initial costs incurred when centralizing. [...]

Virtualization in an Industrial Environment (Part 1)

July 18, 2012July 27, 2012 Tom Jordan Leave a comment

This is the first in a three part article focusing on the entire process of Virtualizing in an industrial environment. While there is a lot of talk about Virtualizing and VDI, we wanted to focus on the viability and deployment of Virtualization in an industrial and manufacturing environment which would speak to the concerns and difficulties specific to this industry.

Part 1: Centralization Before Virtualization

Virtualization.

It is everywhere and there is no escaping it. It is written about, discussed, recommended, and deployed in offices and facilities around the world every day. It is the iPhone of IT…you might not know why you are buying it, you just know that everyone else is using it so it must be the next great thing. But as implementation of virtualized environments continues to become the norm rather than the exception, industry publications are reporting that up to 40% of Virtualization deployments are never completed and eventually scrapped. [...]

Five Ways to Get Thin This Summer

June 6, 2012September 15, 2014 Tom Jordan

It is that time of the year again. The days are getting longer, the nights are getting warmer, and the cover has been taken off the pool. With summer right around the corner, people everywhere are trying to get thin in time for swimsuit season. But what about your office? Your factory? Your remote facilities? Fear not, ThinManager has five simple tips for them to get thin this summer:

1) Eliminate Bloat:

Reclaim your desk by getting rid of your big PC towers and huge CRT monitors. By switching to thin clients, you can greatly reduce your energy costs and enjoy a more efficient work environment. A thin client network will allow your infrastructure to stay agile and allow you to easily change your architecture whenever there is a need. ThinManager knows that there is no easier way to manage thin clients than the ThinManager Platform…and an organized and agile business is a successful business. [...]

ThinManager Platform 6 Now Shipping

May 3, 2012September 15, 2014 Tom Jordan

News Release

For Immediate Release: May 3, 2012

ACP ThinManager Platform 6 Now Shipping

ALPHARETTA, GEORGIA—ACP (Automation Control Products), a worldwide leader in the automation industry that provides full-feature centralized thin client and terminal server management software, has released its new ThinManager Platform 6 software. This release will continue to build on ACP’s ThinManager platform for the industrial automation sector by centralizing management of all user applications and resources. This release has several new functions and features iTMC, which allows any Apple iPad to run as a portable, wireless thin client, as well as worldwide remote access capability and improved support for a wide range of hardware and components. The new version can be downloaded via the following link: [...]