One of the compelling reasons for initial VDI adoption was the cost savings that came from not having to manage desktop systems for every employee. Applying security fixes, making regular backups, and implementing manual approaches to data-loss prevention were enough to justify making the switch to thin clients.
Today, more than ever, switching to thin clients makes sense.
But suggesting a refresh after five or ten years of using the same thin client might sound absurd to many. A thin client refresh? Isn’t that contradictory to the original promise of thin clients, which lack mechanical components and seldom wear out?
I would agree, but if your organization is encountering the signs I detail below, you should consider a refresh.
Earlier last year, we relaunched the Citrix Ready Workspace Endpoint program to address a massive ecosystem — more than 500 endpoints — that meets the growing needs of today’s end-users, powered by the Citrix Workspace app. We are pleased to be able to validate the product offerings from the partners highlighted below to help you address your new endpoint needs with full confidence. Check out the verified solutions from our Citrix Ready Workspace Endpoint partners, and click here to learn about the difference between Citrix Ready Premium Endpoints and Citrix Ready Standard Endpoints.
So without further ado, if your organization comes across these signs regularly, you know it is time for a refresh. And, yes, you can find all the solutions you need by simply browsing our Citrix Ready Marketplace.
1) Location, Location, Location
We live and work in a mobile-first era. Work needs to get done from any location, on the go, and immobile thin clients can be inconvenient and affect productivity. Popular concepts today include, in healthcare, workstations on wheels (WoW), and, in transportation and manufacturing, forklift-mounted computers and rugged tablets.
The Citrix Ready workspace hub is built to address these kinds of needs. It’s the central piece of the Citrix Workspace IoT solution, and it’s built on top of Raspberry Pi 3, in partnership with NComputing, Stratodesk, and others.
You’ll also find standard laptop form factors and Chromebooks that are verified and available on the Citrix Ready Marketplace. Securing access to your desktops, apps, and data quickly from any location is core to what we do at Citrix, and we take great pride in leading the way. Consider a refresh if your employee productivity depends on mobility, and desktop access is limited to a single location.
2) In Search of the Elixir of Life
Steve Jobs once said that the mobile era is about low-power devices, touch interfaces, and open web standards.
As technology advances, your devices are probably getting outdated and slower. That’s no way to work in a software-defined world.
For instance, older thin clients may not have the required web-engine to support native single sign-on and access control features to numerous SaaS and web apps. The good news? You can get that with Citrix Ready Standard Endpoints for Windows and Linux platforms, which include an internal browser developed using open web standards.
Adding a browser enables faster access and better security control. The advancements only get better with many endpoint partners started sharing our software-defined vision including continuous software upgrades and more. And speaking of just browsers, the most significant selling point for Chromebooks when launched initially was that they don’t deteriorate with age.
So consider a refresh if you’re exploring future-proofing your endpoints to advance your user experience in the long term.
3) Instead, You Found End-of-Life
You call up support for technical help one day, and they redirect you to sales. Has that happened to you? If so, you know why: Your support terms have ended and the hardware you purchased has reached end-of-life.
Bummer.
One solution is, of course, to seek internal approval and renew your agreement to deploy new hardware to replace the old.
The other option, less known, yet cheap and effective, is to replace just the software stack. Citrix partners such as IGEL, Neverware, Unicon, Stratodesk, and Atrust have Citrix Ready-verified software-only solution that refreshes old PCs to make them as good as new. Learn how we’ve put this in practice with a Citrix Ready bundle we prepared with Google and Neverware.
When a firmware upgrade isn’t possible for older thin clients, Citrix can still improve end-user experience with HDX-Thinwire Advanced run in compatibility mode.
One other scenario worth mentioning is when newer thin clients try to access legacy apps but aren’t compatible. In these cases, a tubby client model may serve you well, combined with the Citrix Remote PC Access solution.
So if your hardware has reached end-of-life, it’s time to consider a thin-client refresh.
4) Enough Is Not Enough
“But thin clients are not good enough for my needs.”
Heard that before?
Given a choice, your end-users may claim thin clients are inadequate to meet their needs. Because of this, IT tends to prefer a piecemeal approach, pushing thin clients only to those classified as task workers with limited demand for apps and collaboration.
Unfortunately, the approach isn’t as valid as it once was.
Yes, there are historical reasons why thin-client adoption is perceived as a cost-cutting measure, rather than a way to deliver simplicity, security, and ease of doing business.
But the fact of the matter today is that thin clients are “fattened” quite a lot to enable IT scale effectively while serving its power users and knowledge workers. Use cases validated by Citrix Ready Standard Endpoints include multi-monitor, peer-to-peer video conference over Skype for business at VGA quality and centralized access to rich graphical apps such as AutoCAD or Photoshop. These endpoints are not high-end but are meant to be customizable to meet most end-user needs. Power users are a substantial segment of end-users in every organization, so every platform is building capabilities to meet those needs. For example, Intel introduced enterprise-grade Chromebooks, partnering with various OEM vendors focusing on power user needs that are now Citrix Ready verified.
And, that’s not all.
Citrix Ready lists thin clients classified as Citrix Ready Premium Endpoints. These devices deliver the best Citrix Workspace experience for power users, delivering all the platform capabilities without hardware limitations. With these devices, peers can video conference over Skype on VDI with HD quality. These thin clients are the first choice for organizations looking to adopt Microsoft Teams as their primary tool for collaboration.
Citrix Ready Endpoint Premium’s capabilities are possible through deep integration with Citrix Workspace. More specifically, partners integrate with our pioneering HDX redirection technologies (known as HDX MediaStream), ranging from Windows Media to Flash to HTML5 to WebRTC, that offload the server by leveraging the processing power of endpoint devices.
So consider a refresh if you’re looking to expand thin-client deployment in your organization.
The Citrix Ready Workspace Endpoint program showcases robustly tested and verified endpoints that integrate with the Citrix Workspace app. Workspace endpoints help users get instant access to SaaS and web apps, files, mobile apps, and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops through an all-in-one interface powered by Citrix Workspace. Learn more in the Citrix Ready Marketplace.
