Customer Story. Lean Investment, Secure IT

Transcription

1 Customer Story Lean Investment, Secure IT The independent insurance broker PRO INVEST has increased the availability of its data processing systems. Now its IT is centrally organized and remotely managed. Instead of buying new PCs, the company deployed thin clients. As result, over a period of five years PRO INVEST s overall IT costs have fallen by 68%.

2 Lean Investment, Secure IT The independent insurance broker PRO INVEST, headquartered in Hannover, Germany strives to fi nd the best possible insurance protection for its clients. To do this, the experts at PRO INVEST select the best insurance policies, fi nancing terms, building-loan contracts and capital investments from 80 companies and across all insurance sectors. Thanks to its new centralized IT infrastructure featuring IGEL thin clients, the company now provides even better service to its customers and operates more economically. Increased Data Security and System Availability Until mid-2009, Robert Majenka, the General Manager of PRO INVEST was battling diffi culties with his EDP system almost every day: These issues included faulty hard drives, virus infections, and time-consuming and expensive data recoveries. Beyond that, the ten workstation PCs in his company were not networked, and there was no strictly defi ned data-backup system in place. What is more, the great time and effort required for software updates reached its unpleasant annual highpoint each October when, right at the busiest time of the year, the insurance companies that PRO INVEST deals with send out their own updates. At that time, our four internal offi ce workers and six independent brokers were still working with Windows PCs that were over eight years old and being maintained at great expense by an external service provider, Majenka recalls. Hardware failures and updates, resulting in decreased productivity, were always causing higher indirect costs. It was an increasingly unacceptable situation. The Customer Independent insurance broker with 10 employees Policies selected from over 80 companies: Insurance, financing, building-loan contracts and capital investments Unnetworked workstation PCs, no server New IT: Comparing Two Scenarios To bring the growing fi nancial burden under control, Majenka asked PIANTO, an IT systems consultant and installer based in Berlin to propose a solution. PIANTO s owner, Thomas Guttmann, who had already implemented the Internet-based sales system for PRO INVEST, then began to systematically analyze the existing IT situation and determine the desired outcome: The requirements of a new IT infrastructure were easy and quick to identify: The indirect IT costs had to be permanently cut and an effi cient, centrally manageable system had to be installed. In addition, a backup system independent of the end-user devices had to be set up to run unobtrusively in the background and allow data recoveries to be completed in less than two hours. In examining the situation at PRO INVEST, PIANTO considered two possible options: The fi rst one called for installing workstation PCs with locally installed applications along with a central server for backing up data and PC images. The second one involved deploying a thin client environment with a central terminal server (server-based-computing). This system would also be protected by data backup and recovery software. To ensure high availability, PIANTO recommended purchasing a server with two power supplies and a supplemental uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with a capacity of 1000 VA and an internal coverage time of 20 minutes in the event of an external AC power outage. In both cases, the data backups would be performed overnight by two redundant, separately located Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems), each with a storage capacity of 4 TB. The Challenge Cut indirect IT costs significantly and permanently Deploy a centrally manageable backup system independent of the hardware in end-user devices Achieve data recovery within two hours Investing in Thin Clients Proves More Economical For the PC scenario, PIANTO conducted a cost/benefi t analysis for 10 PCs running Microsoft Windows XP. For the thin client scenario, Guttmann selected 10 thin clients from IGEL Technology, the German market leader in this computing sector. When it came to the investment costs, the IGEL option already came out ahead. Despite the fact that the hardware costs for both scenarios were essentially the same, the IGEL scenario is still 25% cheaper, Guttmann reports. That is all because of the lower cost of software and installation. Whereas each PC needs an individual license for its own antivirus and backup software, the scenario with Linux-based IGEL thin clients needs only one single license for the terminal server. Although it is true that the terminal server client access licenses (TS-CALs or User CALs) are a bit more expensive than the Windows XP licenses for PCs, with the thin client option you

3 do not have to purchase 10 separate MS-Offi ce licenses but only user licenses, and in this case six of them are suffi cient. So, when all is said and done, the software costs for the thin client approach are 4,800 euros or 40% cheaper. Beyond that, the installation costs are only half as much. Unlike PCs, thin clients do not require time-consuming installation procedures; instead, they are only confi gured to access the central server, Guttmann explains. That is why the costs for confi guring the thin clients are really hardly worth mentioning in addition to the fl at fee for the server installation. On the other hand, installing 10 new PCs would have cost an additional 2,100 euros. Indirect Costs Also Favor Thin Clients For PRO INVEST, the decisive argument for going with the thin client option was the lower maintenance costs. For the PC scenario, they would be 17,850 euros, fi ve times higher than for the thin client scenario. The reason: Thomas Guttmann at PIANTO can manage the server, the thin clients and the applications remotely from Berlin. The thin clients come standard with the Universal Management Suite, which allows all management functions, including fi rmware updates, to be handled remotely. On the other hand, with PCs we would have had to travel from Berlin to Hannover to constantly install updates and patches on site. In short, the support process would be much like it had been before. Furthermore, the lean thin clients have lower annual power costs. Assuming nine hours of operation daily at an electricity rate of 15 euro cents per kilowatt hour, PRO INVEST spends about 560 euros on power annually. With PCs, this would climb to 780 euros. So, when you examine the overall expenses for both approaches over a period of fi ve years, the thin client scenario is 68% cheaper, which means it costs 77,800 euros less. But What Happens in the Event of a Fire? The high availability of the centralized IT system installed by PIANTO is also impressive. This factor is made clear by its calculations concerning potential system outages. A defective PC would result in at most 48 hours of downtime including the time for obtaining the replacement hardware and installing the backed up data. With a loaned unit, this recovery period drops to seven hours. Thin clients, with no moving parts such as hard drives and cooling fans, are inherently less failure-prone than PCs. Nevertheless, should a thin client fail Guttmann estimates that the downtime would be at most 24.3 hours. With a loaned unit, the recovery period would be only three hours. Should the server fail, Guttmann s contingency plan calls for the server images routinely backed up on both NAS systems The Solution Deploy a new, centralized IT infrastructure based on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (64-bit) Implement a centralized backup system: Backup the server image and data overnight on two redundant and physically separated NAS units Deploy IGEL UD3 LX models with provision for optional smartcard readers Deploy the IGEL Universal Management Suite to be provisionally transferred to a virtual server located on a high-performance laptop. In this way, company operations can be maintained, even if system performance is less during the emergency. In the extreme case in which all IT devices are destroyed in a fi re, the maximum downtime with a PC-based system would be 46.5 hours. However, with thin clients this downtime would be less than 27 hours, a timeframe that falls within the tolerance required by PRO INVEST. Good Prospects for the Future To safeguard the new IT investment at PRO INVEST, PIAN- TO is operating the server with the 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows Server TM 2008, which is best suited for using MS Remote Desktop Services (RDS) previously known as MS terminal server services. With its 12 GB of capacity, the server also has a very generously sized RAM section. Similarly, the thin clients were selected for their high performance and future-readiness. The IGEL UD3-720 LX thin clients in use, which feature high graphics performance, not only allow dual-screen operation but are also optionally fi tted with integrated smartcard readers. In fact, at PRO INVEST smartcards could eventually replace the currently used authentication system based on USB etokens. To top it all off, PIANTO chose the most versatile and feature-rich fi rmware package available from IGEL. In addition to an integrated web browser for accessing cloud services, this package includes other features such as software clients for accessing virtual desktops that are provisioned by means of Microsoft VDI Suite, Citrix XenDesktop or VMware View. So far, however, Thomas Guttmann still has a healthy skepticism regarding the suitably of these solutions and approaches for use in smaller companies. From my own user s point of view, I still fi nd working with a virtual desktop to be a bit too confusing. Aside from that, I feel that for PRO INVEST the terminal server services solution is by far the most effi cient one.

4 Total Cost Comparison: PC vs Thin Client Scenarios PC-Scenario Thin Client-Variante HARDWARE Neccessary Investments: NUMBER COST/UNIT ( ) COSTS ( ) NUMBER COST/UNIT ( ) COSTS ( ) Server: Lenovo TD100 TW 1 unit 2,443 1 unit 2,843 E5430/2,66GHz, HDD500B (with 4 GB RAM) (with 12 GB RAM) Buffalo NAS 4TB 2 units units Lenovo ThinkCentre M57p 9088 Tower 1 x Core2 Duo E8400/3GHz 10 units 490 4,900 IGEL UD3 LX 10 units 468 4,689 INST. Installation costs for server Flat rate 1,200 Flat rate 1,200 Installation costs for client (3 hours/pc; 0.1 hour/tc; 70 /hour) 10 PCs 210 2, TCs 7 70 Microsoft Windows Server TM Bit 1 license license 644 Additional licences for Windows Server 2008 (user, min. 5 licenses) 5 licenses licenses Additional licenses for Windows Server 2008 TS-CAL, min. 5 licenses) Does not apply 10 licenses (2 x 5) Microsoft Windows XP 10 licenses 149 1,490 Does not apply (IGEL Linux) SOFTWARE Microsoft Office 2007 Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Server Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery PC 10 standalone licenses 345 3,450 6 user licenses 345 2,070 1 license license licenses Does not apply (application software on server) Symantec Endpoint Protection (minimum 5 licenses) 11 licenses (10 + 1) 61, licenses (min. 5) 332 VERS. NAFI insurance software, multi-station (5 licenses) 10 licenses 116 1, licenses 116 1,160 Total investment costs: 20,779 15,758 Annual maintenance costs: 17,850 3,510 Annual power costs: 80W/PCx8 hrs/day W/TCx8 hrs/day 561 TCO after 5 years: 113,951 36,113 Cost advantage: 0 % 68 % Comparison of Maintenance Costs Maintenance (hours per month) per PC per 10 PCs per TC per 10 TCs Updates to PCs (local applications) 2 20 Does not apply Windows XP Updates /SEP Does not apply CLIENTS (TERMINAL) SERVER NAFI (with thin clients only on the server) Does not apply Insurance software Does not apply Update thin client firmware (central and grouped, not linear) Does not apply Updates to Windows server, Security and backup software 2 3 Updates to NAFI software Updates to insurance software Does not apply 1 More software updates (Java, Acrobat Reader etc.) Does not apply 1 Total: Maintenance costs / month ( 50/h) 1, Maintenance costs / year ( 50/h) 17,850 3,510

5 Initial Skepticism Has Now Vanished Setting up the new IT infrastructure at PRO INVEST took a total of three weeks, two of which involved ordering the hardware and then testing the server, software and the thin clients. When Guttmann installed the server, Majenka provided him with a software package containing the 20 insurance-sectorspecifi c applications used by PRO INVEST. Setting up the server in Berlin, including removal of the old, legacy PCs, took only three hours to accomplish. Guttmann spent the remaining setup time in Hannover, where he tracked down and corrected minor glitches. Even though the insurance sector is still a bit behind when it comes to IT fl exibility and compatibility, now almost all its sector-specifi c applications can be run on a terminal server. For the few exceptions where this still will not work, PRO INVEST continues to use a PC for those special applications, Guttmann reports. Robert Majenka is also very pleased with the new infrastructure. When Mr. Guttmann explained the many benefi ts of thin client computing with IGEL products, I was quite skeptical. Today, however, I am very glad that we went that route. Our productivity, system availability and transparency have all improved within the levels predicted by PIANTO, and, as promised, our indirect costs have also dropped. Germany (HQ) United Kingdom United States Singapore Hong Kong IGEL Technology GmbH Hanna-Kunath-Str. 31 D Bremen Tel +49 (0) Fax +49 (0) IGEL Technology Ltd 1210 Parkview Arlington Business Park Theale Reading Berkshire RG7 4TY UK Tel +44 (0) Fax +44 (0) IGEL Technology America, LLC 2106 Florence Avenue Cincinnati OH USA Tel Fax Toll Free (US only): GET IGEL info@igelamerica.com IGEL Technology Care of: C. Melchers GmbH & Co. Singapore Branch 101 Thomson Road # 24-01/05 United Square Singapore Tel (65) Fax (65) IGEL Technology Care of: Melchers (H.K.) Ltd Shun Tak Centre West Tower Connaught Road C. Hong Kong Tel Fax Errors and omissions excepted. Subject to change without notice. 06/2011 IGEL Technology A member of the Melchers group. info@igel.com 125-EN