• Faced total infrastructure refresh
• Needed to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 with HD camera USB to VDI compatibility
• Previous failed experiences with Dell Wyse Zero Clients

The Court had been using Dell Wyse Zero Clients on VMware vSphere with Windows XP as their virtual desktops within their computing environment, and they needed to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. Installed at their front desk stations for security purposes, they had HD cameras for photo purposes that simply would not work with Windows 7 via Dell Wyse Clients. Several Dell Wyse Zero Clients and Thin Clients were tested out, but nothing would work… and their support was not very inventive or helpful at all. The Network Administrator was looking at a total infrastructure refresh in complete frustration, and stuck.

• Faced total infrastructure refresh
• Needed to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 with HD camera USB to VDI compatibility
• Previous failed experiences with Dell Wyse Zero Clients

The Court had been using Dell Wyse Zero Clients on VMware vSphere with Windows XP as their virtual desktops within their computing environment, and they needed to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. Installed at their front desk stations for security purposes, they had HD cameras for photo purposes that simply would not work with Windows 7 via Dell Wyse Clients. Several Dell Wyse Zero Clients and Thin Clients were tested out, but nothing would work… and their support was not very inventive or helpful at all. The Network Administrator was looking at a total infrastructure refresh in complete frustration, and stuck.

• Needed to replace old Thin Client estate  
• Support for video conferencing, audio, and on-demand video streaming 
• Replace 500+ Dell Wyse Clients in Citrix environment

AmicusHorizon needed to replace their old Thin Client estate to keep up with the ever-increasing demands of their end users. The current devices couldn’t offer support for video conferencing, audio and on-demand video streaming that were becoming a must have for their employees. They wanted to find the best value device at the best price to service these needs. Andrew Rayfield, Infrastructure Technology Team Leader for AmicusHorizon said, “Following an organizational merger in 2009, we inherited 500 Dell Wyse 1200LE Thin Clients to use with our Citrix XenApp environment. As our demands grew, the devices couldn’t keep up. We needed to look for a new device to use in a full desktop refresh. Any potential provider had to support video conferencing, audio and on-demand video streaming. We needed a device to provide full Citrix HDX redirection. “Our plan included integrating Microsoft Lync 2010 with our Polycom system allowing video conferencing from the desktop into virtual meeting rooms. Support for webcams was paramount with an additional requirement for seamless compatibility of SD cards. We also have over 80 sites throughout Kent, the South Coast and South London. Centrally managing our desktop devices from our data center in Sittingbourne is imperative.

Ideally, any new device management solution would be intuitive, scalable and free from both upfront cost and progressive upgrade charges.

“After a recommendation from our reseller, we evaluated devices from Dell Wyse and 10ZiG Technology. Our aim was to get the best value for money. With that in mind, we were very happy to consider alternative Thin Client vendors.”

• Needed an endpoint device that integrated seamlessly with VMware Horizon 
• Looking for an endpoint device with a high performing, fast protocol that worked over wide area network
• Wanted reduced visit branches and unified experience from terminal to terminal

First National Bank of Hutchinson has gradually been implementing VDI technology for the past five years but has recently made an extensive effort to “bump up” the implementation process. The bank has been using VMware Horizon View since the start of their VDI deployment and has recently switched to the most current version, VMware Horizon View 5.3, which offers faster performance and an optimal user experience.

With four remote locations, the bank needed a solution that would allow a high quality and uniform end user experience, over a low bandwidth connection and without the installation of additional servers at each branch. To achieve this, they needed an endpoint device that integrated seamlessly with VMware Horizon View and also something that would create a high performing and consistent end user experience.

Tim Miller, First National Bank of Hutchinson’s Senior Vice President and Manager of IT, said having four branches more than 45 minutes away from each other originally presented quite the challenge. “When initially implementing VDI, we knew we did not want to put additional servers at any of the branches and in order to get good performance for our workstations, we needed to find an end point device with a high performing, fast protocol that worked well over our wide area network. We also needed something that not only allowed us to reduce our need to visit those branches, but would also provide a uniform user experience that allowed our employees to move from terminal to terminal as well as from branch to branch.” Miller also commented on the free management utility. He said it took the burden out of managing multiple devices and allowed for centralized maintenance and full administrative control over all local and remote devices. When researching new endpoint devices, Miller said he was looking for several key factors. First, he needed a device that was simple to set up and simple to fix if something went wrong. “We needed a product that was pretty self-explanatory, so that if the need arose, we could send a new one out and the end user could more or less replace it by themselves.” Miller also said he needed to find a device that offered multiple monitor support, little to no virus exposure, and something that was easily upgradable as well as customizable.

“We wanted to make sure that whatever device we chose didn’t have an operating system because we didn’t want to worry about OS upgrades or viruses and also something that integrated well with VMware Horizon View,” he said. According to Miller, Zero Clients and the PCoIP Protocol had been of interest to him since the beginning of their VDI implementation. “The PCoIP Protocol is fast and having a fast protocol over a wide area network is extremely important.” He said this, coupled with the fact that Zero Clients have no moving parts, which means that less can go wrong, and no operating system to maintain, made his decision “much easier.”

• Looking to upgrade existing Thin Client estate with modern Zero Clients that would fully support VMware Horizon PCoIP Protocol
• Needed to take away the burden of supporting business critical application and peripherals such as dictation devices, label printer
• Take complexity out of day-to-day management of desktops, and problems that were created by running a Windows Thin Client with two desktop Oss – local and virtual machine

Ignis Asset Management had already implemented VMware Horizon View as its desktop delivery method and was now looking to upgrade its HP Thin Client estate with modern Zero Clients that could fully support the PCoIP Protocol. The challenge was to take the complexity out of the day-to-day management of the desktop and the problems that were created by running a Windows Thin Client with two desktop OSs, both the local one and in the virtual machine, while providing seamless support for specialist peripherals. Blair Kirkland, Technical Specialist (Desktop
Virtualization) at Ignis said, “We have always had an interest in Zero Client technology and how it could reduce the complexity of managing our desktops. Unfortunately, at the time of our initial project, VMware Horizon View Zero Clients couldn’t offer us the dual and quad screen support we required, and the best solution appeared to be provided by Windows. We implemented HP T5740e Windows Embedded 7 Thin Clients, adding them to the domain and managing them as domain devices through group policy. It’s fair to say that this solution was not ideal.
Supporting two desktops was a definite drain on our resources and added a layer of complexity. In addition, we were experiencing latency issues and we felt that performance could be significantly improved. The Windows services and drivers running in the background took a chunk of resource away from the processing power of the Thin Client and it constrained the end user experience. Our users also found it difficult and sometimes confusing to have two desktops. To change a password, they had to amend it locally on the Thin Client, otherwise it wouldn’t pass through to the virtual machine. The system wasn’t particularly intuitive either. “We had always kept one eye on Zero Clients, one of the main reasons being the need to take the burden away from supporting business critical applications and peripherals. A good example of this is the experience we had with some of our system keyboards which required software to be installed on both the virtual machine and the Thin Client. We knew that a Zero Client would erase this problem and make it easier to integrate other peripherals such as our dictation devices and label printers.”