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July 19, 2018

Linux Thin Clients can be the Perfect VDI Endpoint Solution

Linux Thin Client Devices can be the Perfect VDI Endpoint


Linux Thin Clients Solved Conestoga Wood Specialties’ VDI Problems

In business since 1964 and a long-time 10ZiG customer, Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation (Conestoga) has built their reputation as America’s leading supplier of custom cabinet doors and wood cabinet components. Their focus is dependability and their commitment is supporting cabinet manufacturers with the highest quality products, the most ethical business practices, and the best record for complete and on-time delivery within their industry. As a wood product manufacturer, Conestoga’s shop environment is a very dusty one. Wanting to track various processes and stages that their product cycles go through, they needed to add PCs, which generally do not hold up well in this type of environment. A Linux Thin Client OS environment was their perfect VDI solution; and, here’s why.

Up until about 2006, Conestoga was using IBM dumb terminals on their dusty shop floor that were connected to their IBM AS/400. Learning that Twinax connections were no longer going to be part of IBM’s future, and wanting to do more at their work stations in the dusty shop, Conestoga decided to demo and go with the option of, then BOSaNOVA, 10ZiG Thin Clients for their Virtual Desktop Infrastructure environment. The main goal of Conestoga was to have numerous workstations on their shop floor that would report the various steps of their wood manufacturing process as needed. Their manufacturing paperwork is barcoded. As an order moves through the plant, it is scanned into their system as the manufacturing process steps are completed in real time. This is done with scanners, which are connected via USB port to Thin Clients. The Thin Clients are also used for other tracking purposes on the floor – shipping/packaging, information entry, quality control reporting with products, and inventory searches and follow up. Staff is also able to use their intranet to check email via Outlook web access, look up documents in the document control center, open Word and Excel docs through Open Office, and more. Linux Thin Client devices by 10ZiG Technology ended up working for them and fitting their needs.

Linux Thin Clients by 10ZiG with The 10ZiG Manager; a Winning VDI Combination for Conestoga

The ultimate solution that Conestoga chose was 10ZiG Linux Thin Client OS environment. Working with 10ZiG from 2006-to-date… initially, their purchases were 10ZiG BOSaNOVA hardware; and over the years, many rebranded 10ZiG Thin Client purchases were solutions as well. Fast-forward to present day, where Conestoga currently uses Linux Thin Client 10ZiG 5802q Series devices. As a result, they have ordered many of the wireless version, obviously also saving money by not having to run wires. They do have a robust wireless infrastructure at most of their sites as of today. They also use the free 10ZiG ManagerCentralized Management Software utility, to copy and configure all new Linux Thin Clients before deploying them, saving them tremendous time – and also for uploading new firmware. To date, Conestoga has hundreds of 10ZiG/BOSaNOVA devices in production in all of their sites, collectively. 10ZiG Linux Thin Client devices work very well with their IBM AS/400 platform; they are durable and highly functional in the wood shop’s manufacturing environment, and the 10ZiG Manager makes it easy for them to roll out additional new 10ZiG Linux Thin Client devices.

“We have never heard anything but good things regarding our 10ZiG Linux Thin Client devices. The benefits that we see are that employees who work on the shop floor are able to quickly report what is happening at any given moment with our many product orders that are in the production process. We continue to have a close relationship with 10ZiG and we don’t see that changing because our company continues to rely heavily on the IBM AS/400 (IBM i) and we need those 10ZiG Thin Clients out on our shop floor. Customer service and technical support are also great. I do recommend 10ZiG to other companies.