Optimising your desktop architecture to gain power efficiency

With the processing power of PCs doubling roughly every 18 months, the computational power on the desktop has now outstripped the demands of even the most richly featured office applications many times over. It has been calculated that the standard desktop PC utilises less than 1% of its capability when running general office applications. This is an indefensible inefficiency that consumes far more energy than can ever be channelled into desktop productivity.

Now that rising energy costs have assumed a heightened prominence in the TCO debate, the latest thin client technology is an attractive proposition for the corporate desktop.

Deploying the latest thin clients brings together the benefits of server and storage optimisation technologies to deliver even greater benefit for an organisation, fully realising the centralised computing model.

A thin client requires around 90% less energy than a desktop PC. If we use a baseline of 1000 desktop devices, the reduced power consumption equates to a cost reduction of over £40,000.00 per annum. In an environment running legacy CRT displays, thin client TFT displays will double the energy reduction.

The wider benefits of thin clients in the centralised computing model include:

• Lower support overhead
• Lower maintenance & management overhead
• Significant increase in security
• “Desktop Anywhere” capability – supports hot desking & remote working
• Longer useful lifecycle – up to 7 years
• Rapid rollouts of replacement hardware or applications
• Transparent licensing procurement & management