[GRLUG] Amerisure ditches its PCs, goes all virtual

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Wed, 2010-04-07 at 10:27 -0400, Ben Rousch wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 10:06 AM, Casey DuBois <casey at grlug.org> wrote:
> > 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.
> You may not save money on the actual hardware, but it sounds like he
> saved a lot of money on IT support staff. I can see this especially in
> a small extension office which previously had a small business server
> and a dozen workstations to keep up. Now they just have an Internet
> pipe to keep track of and a couple of spare thin clients that any
> idgit can plug in.
> It essentially eliminates all end-user hardware issues. 

Our department of 4 [including project manager and web developer]
support ~300 workstations.  "end-user hardware issues" are barely a blip
on the radar.  They are rare and easily handled - just replace the PC,
thin-clients reduce no real costs in regards to hardware issues.  If a
shop can't just-replace-the-PC they need to send their admin to training
on polices and application distribution.

> You will also save money in energy efficiency since each thin client

Prove it.  I've found most green claims to be completely bogus.