{"id":2511,"date":"2013-05-29T17:41:27","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T17:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/?p=2511"},"modified":"2024-04-02T14:21:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T18:21:48","slug":"monthly-integrator-spotlight-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/?p=2511","title":{"rendered":"Monthly Integrator Spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using ThinManager to Drive a Cutting Edge Facility<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Third Evolution Inc.<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a>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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Robert Maxfield, the Vice President and Control System Architect of Third Evolution<\/a>, recently got to see just how cutting edge companies can be in this sector while deploying ThinManager<\/a> in a new state of the art facility specializing in Biomethane capture and processing.\u00a0 \u201cOur client originally came to us wanting to implement a Citrix XenDesktop thin client architecture into one of their existing facilities.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 After seeing it in person, they were sold.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

After their initial upgrade, the customer sat down with Robert to design an even more advanced system for a new facility with a network architecture based on their recent facility upgrade.\u00a0 Robert explained that they intended to push the envelope even further.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u201cBecause they are such a cutting edge company, they wanted to create something ultra modern that would still allow them flexibility because as they continue to patent new technologies there will be a need to continue to fine tune their process.\u00a0 They wanted a very clean Control Room with low power usage and heat output, as well as a desire to incorporate iPads instead of placing thin clients and additional network cables throughout the facility without sacrificing functionality of all the features ThinManager offers.\u00a0 Essentially, they designed this facility around ThinManager.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Robert started by designing a facility wide intranet using WPA2 security on a segmented Layer 3 Wi-Fi network.\u00a0 By creating a separate VLAN and Subnet for the Wi-Fi and the control network and routing it to the ThinManager server, he ensured that if the network security was breached, the only thing that could be accessed would be ThinManager instead of the server controlling operations and data.\u00a0 Then to implement the ThinManager iTMC<\/a> app, he hard coded the SSID for the Wi-Fi network directly into the iPad, which would render the Wi-Fi network invisible to any other device inside or outside the facility.<\/p>\n

After completing the wireless architecture, Robert and the team from Third Evolution turned their attention to the Control Room.\u00a0 \u201cWe started with a basic ESX architecture using two VMware servers and one virtual server with Windows 2008R2 on each physical machine running redundant.\u00a0 Then we have five 55\u201d screens.\u00a0 Three of them are on one Arista Box-240PC connected to one server using the ThinManager MultiMonitor<\/a>\u00a0feature, and the other two are connected to the backup ThinServer on a second Arista client,\u201d<\/em> Robert told us.\u00a0 \u201cWe designed it so that if any one piece of hardware failed, they wouldn\u2019t lose their screens.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

After tying the network together, Robert began layering in ThinManager features to customize the facility operations and increase functionality.\u00a0 \u201cWe set up the Shadowing feature to make it easier to work remotely with the plant operators.\u00a0 We have ThinManager set up at the corporate office that we can access via VPN and use that to shadow them at the plant.\u00a0 If there is ever a problem, they can show us what they are doing, and we can provide accurate real time remote support.\u00a0 We also layered in ThinManager AppLink and IP Camera Support to deliver the integrated camera dashboard for advanced controls as well as for delivery of their Wonderware InTouch HMI.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>By using AppLink he was able to set InTouch to deliver in full screen mode without having to configure each individual user with a separate batch file or security preferences.<\/p>\n

The most impressive part of the Third Evolution architecture, however, was the integration of WinTMC<\/a> and iTMC with the ThinManager installation at the facility and the corporate office.\u00a0 \u201cAnyone with security clearance at their headquarters or one of their 150 satellite sites can monitor the plant processes without using hardcoded security credentials, resolution settings, or even an RDP connection. We just gave them an icon on their PCs and iPads, and they have full monitoring capability right at their fingertips.\u00a0 Even the President and Vice President of the company can use the app to connect via VPN and access the plant network from anywhere.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

After running for six months, Robert says the customer has not reported any problems with the system and that it is now part of the standard architecture for all of their facilities.\u00a0 \u201cI think the ease of integration when deploying ThinManager is wonderful.\u00a0 Without the centralized management ThinManager delivers, we would have had to do a lot more work and had a system with less flexibility and security.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

We then asked him if he had any parting advice for other system integrators. \u00a0\u201cIf you are going to use ThinManager, utilize it to its fullest.\u00a0 Don\u2019t just use the bits and pieces you are comfortable with.\u00a0 It is simple to understand and deploy, and you won\u2019t have to edit or restructure any of the software.\u00a0 We already have two more ThinManager deployments scheduled for this year, and we plan on introducing the end user to everything ThinManager has to offer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

To view our “Tips & Gems” video tutorials, visit our video links page\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To review cost savings of using the ThinManager Platform, visit our ROI Calculator\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To read about successful ThinManager Platform deployments, visit\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To see when the next ThinManager 2-Day Training Session is being offered, visit\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using ThinManager to Drive a Cutting Edge Facility \u00a0 Third Evolution Inc.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 That combined with the projected increase in fossil fuel consumption […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,59],"tags":[55,125,166,210,124,30,209,239],"class_list":["post-2511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-real-world-thinmanager","tag-ipad","tag-multimonitor","tag-rdp","tag-renewable-energy","tag-thin-clients","tag-thinmanager","tag-third-evolution","tag-virtualization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2511"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3707,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions\/3707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.thinmanager.com\/thinclients\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}