| NBA (Network Boot Agent) Technology |
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• Fast Installation and Application Deployment |
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| are the most touted advantages of Thin Client when compared to PC. However, Thin Client do suffer from: | ||
| • Poor
Multimedia and Web Browsing Performance • Requirement of Expensive Servers • Unpredictable Performance under Heavy Loading or Misbehaving User/Application |
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| Fortunately, you don't have to limit your computing
platform to only Thin Client or PC. |
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| With NBA (Network Boot Agent) technology from ALD, you can have the advantages of Thin Client yet without its disadvantages. In an NBA powered network, workstations download Windows 98 images from an NBA Server when power-up. Applications software, also stored in NBA Server, are available to workstations on a demand basis. | ||
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| Fast Installation and Application Deployment | ||
| Many of you might be quick to figure out, hard
disk drives for storage of OS and applications software are no longer required.
Along with the savings on hard disk drive costs, the average 3-4 hours in
configuring a new system are eliminated. Configuration and software installation
is done only once and can be used by all stations in the same NBA network.
For a 100 seat organization, this is equivalent to a 2 man-month saving
of a professional IT support staff. |
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| As the software management and maintenance is done centrally once in the server and used for whole network, new application deployment and software upgrade can be reduced from days to hours. Thanks to NBA technology, IT support staff can go home earlier. Besides reducing the workload of IT staff, this minimizes disruption to the users. After all, bread and butter operations should not be affected. | ||
| Higher Availability | ||
| Since workstations do not require hard disk drives, there is no problem of hanged system due to HDD breakdown. This saves the lost productivity of both the user and the IT support staff (it takes 5-6 hours to determine a HDD breakdown, replace a new HDD and install and configure the software ), and possibly the purchase cost of a HDD. It is found that moving parts like HDD and CPU cooling fans are the primary causes of system breakdown. In developing countries with poor electricity supply, every PC needs a UPS to guard against possible damage of HDD during power outage. By adopting NBA technology, UPS is only required by the NBA server but not the workstations. This represents a significant saving. Moreover, like the rechargeable batteries used in vehicles and mobile phones, batteries used in UPS have to be replaced every year because of aging. | ||
| One frequent cause of system instability and crashes is end users installing their own favorite software, games, wallpaper and utility software. This won't happen in an NBA workstation in which there is no hard disk drive and all software components are properly prepared and installed by IT staff. Another benefit of centrally installed software is the prevention of computer viruses introduced by users installing software from insecure sources. Moreover, applications software can be vigorously tested by IT staff before deployment, significantly reducing the chances of incompatible software installations. | ||
| Secure Data and Immunity from Viruses | ||
| Since hard disk drives are not needed in the workstations, viruses attacking boot sectors cannot do any harm. In the unfortunate case of infection of other types of viruses, the damage can be stopped when the unit is power-down. The boot up next time will be a fresh start with virus free OS and applications downloaded from the NBA server. | ||
| In the NBA model, all data storage is effected in the central servers. With periodic backup undertaken by professional IT staffs, precious corporate data is much more secure. The worry that invaluable data might be lost because of carelessness or laziness of operation staffs is gone. The central storage makes powerful and therefore expensive data management and protection schemes like UPS, RAID storage and fault-tolerant hardware affordable. | ||
| Lower Total Cost of Ownership |
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| One study by a Thin Client vendor shows the number of IT support staff for a 100 seat network can be reduced from five to one when Thin Clients instead of PCs are used, representing tremendous operating saving. Hardware repair and replacement costs of aging hard disk drives and cooling fans are also eliminated. | ||
| With less time spent on trouble shooting user PCs, IT staff can afford more time in planning and implementing the IT needs of the organization. The quality and usefulness of the IT services can therefore be improved. Not to be left over is the loss in productivity when systems crash because of hardware or software problems that are typical of PCs. | ||
| Easy Management and Maintenance | ||
| For resource-strained organizations like schools or companies that are under extreme pressure to streamline their operations, the number of qualified IT support staff might be very limited. The fact that NBA network requires much less support work to manage and maintain, reduces the disadvantages with their fellow, more affluent counterparts. In the minimum configuration, the set-up and configuration of the network can be reduced to that of network cabling. Just plug in the NBA server and the NBA workstations, and the full benefit of network computing is realized. | ||
| Multimedia and Web Browsing Performance | ||
| Thin Clients do not actually do the computation by themselves. Instead, all the processing are done by the server. Thin Clients only process the user inputs and transmit them to the server for processing. The processing result is sent to Thin Clients for display in the monitor. For most of the applications, the data movement is relatively small because the screen contents do not change much. Utilizing this characteristic, Thin Client architecture does a pretty good job of presenting the results of data processing type of work within the constraint of a very narrow bandwidth. | ||
| However, the very nature video and audio information takes up a lot of bandwidth that is beyond the Thin Clients design, resulting in only crude video and audio performance. | ||
| Like PCs, workstations in NBA networks process multimedia applications locally and therefore give much better performance. MPEG-1/2/4 movies and presentations can be streamed with crisp quality. | ||
| The same problem causes jerky display in Thin Clients when web pages are being scrolled. In NBA workstations, web pages are rendered by the local Microsoft Internet Explorer and therefore avoids the jerky appearance of web pages when users scroll the pages. | ||
| Entry Level Server Requirement | ||
| When compared to ordinary Client-Server architectures, Thin Clients normally require very powerful server hardware to give reasonable performance. Typical configuration for a 50+ seat might call for quad-CPU, 2 GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet and RAID drive. This contrasts sharply with an NBA network. To support 50 users, an NBA server requires only a single P3 CPU, 512 MB RAM, Fast Ethernet and IDE drives. In addition to the purchase cost savings, the much simpler hardware used in NBA network is easier to maintain and less prone to failures. | ||
| Predictable Performance | ||
| One inherent problem in Thin Clients is that the processing resources are shared by all the active users. If there are multiple users opening heavy-duty applications, the processor(s) and/or the network might be slowed down to a unpredictable level. By the same logic, a misbehaving application might take up exceptionally large resources to result in intolerable system performance for other users. | ||
| Because all processing is done locally, NBA network is less likely to be dragged down to a crawl by heavy-duty/misbehaving applications. | ||
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