HP: Thin Clients in Government by GovLoop

Thin Clients in Government

Industry Perspective Thin Clients in Government

“In today’s fiscal climate, government agencies are making strategic IT investment decisions to spur efficiencies and innovation to meet growing agency demand. Specifically, agencies are deploying thin client solutions as part of their IT investments since they allow government workers to access information from anywhere on virtual desktops.”

HP Industry Perspective

Thin Clients in Government

Thin clients are not a new phenomenon in government IT, and have been in development for decades. Cody Gerhardt, Client Virtualization Pre-Sales Technical Consultant, HP, provided some insights as to why thin clients are now gaining more attention from IT professionals. “As more government agencies start to look at VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft Virtual offerings, the adaptation of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) technologies has brought interest to thin devices,” said Gerhardt. In today’s fiscal climate, government agencies are making strategic IT investment decisions to spur efficiencies and innovation to meet growing agency demand. Specifically, agencies are deploying thin client solutions as part of their IT investments since they allow government workers to access information from anywhere on virtual desktops. In brief, thin clients move all data and computing resources from individual desktops to a remote, centralized server that can be accessed from any device through a secure login portal. Properly implemented, thin clients can lead to many benefits for government agencies. Gerhardt described six core benefits, which are explored below:

1. RELIABILITY One of the benefits of thin clients is that they offer increased reliability over traditional PCs. “The performance aspects and downtime are two benefits of thin clients.Thin clients have a much greater uptime because they are designed to run 24/7. The traditional PC has always been designed to run 9 to 5,” noted Gerhardt. This means that an employee’s workstation is designed to run all the time at peak performance. Employees do not have to worry about losing data, since the data is centrally stored in a data center, which are typically very reliable systems.

2. RESILIENCE An additional benefit comes from thin clients being read-only devices. As Gerhardt noted, “If a virus were to get on a Windows-based device, when the registry is rebooted on a thin device, then the virus is no longer prevalent. Now, during the uptime of the device that virus has potential to proliferate, but if it’s a read-only operating system then the virus goes away during the reboot.”

Thin Clients in Government

At the same time, an employee may run applications locally using a thin client device. To do so, the employee logs into a web gateway to access their virtual desktop and receives the same user experience, regardless if they access at home or at the office. “The experience is persistent across user environments. The user gets the same experience and the same clean environment through a reboot,” explained Gerhardt.

3. REDUCED POWER USE For agencies looking to decrease costs from power, thin clients are a viable option. Gerhardt describes, “thin clients use one third the power of traditional PC’s. HP has a thin client that is an all-in-one package and leverages 13.5 watts of power. There is not an all-in-one PC that can deliver that kind of performance in the market today.” Since thin clients produce limited to no heat, there are no additional costs incurred for infrastructure cooling. Thin clients also are environmentally conscious solutions. A thin client device requires less packaging, uses less materials, which decreases weight, and lowers shipping and delivery costs.

4. PC REPLACEMENT In many cases, thin clients serve as an alternative to the traditional PC. “Thin clients have allowed customers to add the performance that a PC offers, but with more flexibility,” noted Gerhardt. With thin clients, employees will not have to take home a device, and can access all their data and desktop via a web portal. Thin clients can serve as an enabler for employee productivity, by giving users a device that functions as a mobile PC, but with locked down security benefits and access capabilities provided by a traditional PC.

5. EFFICIENCY Efficiency is constantly on the minds of government IT professionals. Gerhardt shared some insights on how thin clients can help organizations become more efficient. With thin clients and a VDI environment, one of the major benefits is that data is available anytime, anywhere. “Thin clients are unlike your traditional laptop or desktop environment where you shut it down, go home for the day, boot it back up, and wait for it to load, so the data kind of expands across the same place. This allows for access anywhere securely,” stated Gerhardt.

6. SECURITY With thin clients, an agency can take unsecure and secure data and keep information centralized and locked down. “Thin clients do not have a lot of read-write space and they are very easy to secure, manage and update. This is intriguing for a lot of administrators, government or non-government, and part of the reason administrators consider thin clients a viable solution to meet organizational demands,” stated Gerhardt.

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“The fact that we’re able to use standard productivity software, centrally managed in our data center, is a big advantage. We couldn’t load Microsoft® Office on a dumb terminal. But thin clients can run it well. We also save money on licenses because we’re able to share software among multiple employees who aren’t all accessing it at the same time,” Bridget Dancy, CIO, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.

P UBLIC SECTOR P RO FI LE : CLE R K O F TH E C I RCU IT COU RT O F CO O K CO U NT Y , I LL I N OI S One case study that shows the value of thin client solutions is the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Cook County wanted to upgrade technology to improve applications, customer service and accuracy of record keeping. With HP thin clients, employees and citizens could access productivity applications and custom-built government applications. An HP case study that highlights Cook County’s shift to thin clients details three business benefits from implementing a thin client solution: Web-based access to applications for citizens, eliminating the time and expense of traveling to court Shorter lines for citizen access to cashiers in Traffic Court Improved accuracy and fewer errors in all applications

Bridget Dancy, CIO, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, stated, “The fact that we’re able to use standard productivity software, centrally managed in our data center, is a big advantage. We couldn’t load Microsoft® Office on a dumb terminal. But thin clients can run it well. We also save money on licenses because we’re able to share software among multiple employees who aren’t all accessing it at the same time.”

I N T EG RAT I ON W I T H T H E C L OU D Cloud computing has become ubiquitous in IT. As such, the cloud has become defined in a number of ways. There are private, public, hybrid clouds and different service offerings such as ‘platform as a service,’ ‘information as a service’ and ‘software as a service.’ As Gerhardt stated, “One thing about cloud is that cloud is a loosely defined term, because technically virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) could be cloud computing.” The integration of thin client and the cloud is essentially taking the workplace computing environment and leveraging a thin client to deliver infor-

Thin Clients in Government

“Usually the performance issue is the backend. That’s the biggest risk - that the backend is not designed properly. For the user segment you are going after for VDI, it can be a dramatic failure. The users’ perception is that the thin client is not performing, but in reality it’s the backend that’s usually not performing,” Cody Gerhardt, Client Virtualization Pre-Sales Technical Consultant, HP

mation access to a remote setting. Just like the cloud, the term “thin client,” is also defined ambiguously: “HP offers mobile thin client, giving a user who is on the road all the time, a locked down and secure thin device that they are able to access applications located on a web portal that are front-facing to an organization,” stated Gerhardt.

OVERCOM ING P OT E NT I A L CH A LLE NG ES Although thin clients present many benefits for government agencies, there are many related challenges for organizations to leverage thin clients. First, agencies need to have a clear vision of adoption, and have articulated the right ways to leverage thin clients.

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Gerhardt stated, “The concept of using the Internet to connect back in to a government network, especially in secure government agencies is tough. You look at the way some of the most secure government networks are set up; they are not even accessible from a normal network. So there are still some challenges there. Thin clients can definitely enable the remote connectivity that supports an increasingly mobile workforce.” Second, thin clients rely on sound backend systems, so if a backend infrastructure is not fully developed or functioning correctly, organizations will not be able to fully benefit from thin client solutions. Gerhardt stated, “Usually the performance issue is the backend. That’s the biggest risk - that the backend is not designed properly. For the user segment

you are going after for VDI, it can be a dramatic failure. The users’ perception is that the thin client is not performing, but in reality it’s the backend that’s usually not performing.” In order to work around these backend challenges, agencies should consider piloting and testing to guarantee success. “Testing and small pilots are always a major need. Additionally, a security vulnerability analysis and end user feedback should be collected,” said Gerhardt. Third, challenges around culture change while adopting thin clients may exist. To overcome this obstacle, agencies must clearly articulate how thin clients will help employees be more productive. Gerhardt stated, “You always have the

user change challenge. Users may feel that if you have taken a physical PC and given them a thin client, you are taking things away. Most of the time, that’s not necessarily the case. Done properly, the user experience is seamless, and often better.”

H P ’ S U N I QU E A DVA N TAG E HP offers a variety of solutions to help agencies adopt thin clients to meet business needs. As Gerhardt stated, “HP offers a couple different things that can help leverage the experience. HP offers a breadth of platforms from low end devices that do basic computing to a high end devices that gives PC-like power on an endpoint.” In addition to providing secure and reliable devices, HP also offers a device manager toolset to manage Windows and Linux thin clients, with no additional licensing or royalty fees tied to management solutions. Thin clients present many benefits for government agencies, and can be part of the solution to transform government IT. As As Cook County’s Bridget Dancy said, “When we talk with other agencies, we mention HP Thin Clients and afterward, people come up and ask, ‘What’s a thin client?’ They’re one of the best kept secrets around.” To learn more about thin clients, please visit HP solutions at: http://government.hp.com

Thin Clients in Government

ABOUT HP HP’s global Government Affairs team builds relationships with key officials around the world to discuss emerging issues, understand their thinking, offer HP’s unique expertise and insight, and describe the company’s positions. We are committed to active participation in the global public policy dialogue in accordance with laws and our Standards of Business Conduct. As a leading technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally, HP focuses on public policies that maximize the ability of individuals and companies to innovate, benefit people’s daily lives and strengthen the global economy. As such, HP’s policy priorities are built on its two policy platforms Innovation/Competitiveness and Environment - that support an economy based on innovation as the key to sustainable growth. We are members of national and regional trade and industry associations in virtually every country where we have a significant presence. Additional information can be found at: http://government.hp.com

HP Industry Perspective

ABOUT GOVLOOP GovLoop’s mission is to “connect government to improve government.” We aim to inspire public sector professionals by serving as the knowledge network for government. GovLoop connects more than 65,000 members, fostering cross-government collaboration, solving common problems and advancing government careers. GovLoop is headquartered in Washington D.C with a team of dedicated professionals who share a commitment to connect and improve government. For more information about this report, please reach out to Pat Fiorenza, Senior Research Analyst, GovLoop, at pat@govloop.com, or follow him on Twitter: @pjfiorenza. GovLoop  734 15th St NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20005 Phone: (202) 407-7421 Fax: (202) 407-7501 Twitter: @GovLoop