[GRLUG] Amerisure ditches its PCs, goes all virtual

[Casey DuBois]

On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 7:06 AM, Adam Tauno Williams
<awilliam at whitemice.org> wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-04-06 at 15:45 -0400, Casey DuBois wrote:
>> One of our customers is doing this sort of thing but not purchasing
>> thin clients, they are just re-purposing OLD computers.
>> Are there any Open Source options to do this sort of thing?
>> Thinking Schools could benefit.
>
> So he eliminated ~800 (maybe ~$0.5M in hardware) desktops and installed
> 60 servers (with ESX) [probably about $250,000 up front] and spend ~$2
> million on Citrix licenses.  Nope, we don't do that.  Because the ROI is
> somewhere in the sub-basement or maybe the sewer pipes;   I wish it
> wasn't since managing PCs sucks - but thin-clients are expensive and
> limited.  Thin clients require the *same* software license as thick
> clients [you still gotta buy the same M$-Office license] + the several
> layers of licensing on the server side + the cooling and rack capacity
> for *60* servers.  The power point he used to sell this project to his
> board must have been awesome.
>
> I've been pro-thin-client since the first time I used an IBM X-station.
> But they don't make sense.

What are your thoughts on someone offering a managed version of the
Back end hardware with Licensing and hosting?
Would someone with the hardware and volume discounts for Citrix and
such be able to make it work?
Also thinking this person would be able to get some sort of discount
on the Thin Clients.

Casey DuBois
616-808-6942
casey at grlug.org