Monday 14 May 2007

XP Server for Superslim Systems

One of the Flexus cobol tools (see http://www.cobol.tv/) is Thin Client. This great software allows your programs to reside on a server and be accessed from PCs anywhere. Basically, copies of the screen formats etc. are held on each client and only the raw data required to fill these forms travels from client to server and back. This makes for a very fast and efficient network. We have even tested this on 56k dialup lines with reasonable performance.
The client PCs do not need to be powerful because they only run a small client module, do virtually no file handling or data processing. So second user or low specification PCs can be used for this purpose.
But the server is different. Have you ever tried installing and running Windows 2003 server? Even if you have the technical knowledge to configure this stuff you will find everything for "server" use is expensive. Try buying products like antivirus for W2003 server and you will soon find out what I mean. Even the free antivirus programs (do you really run these?) become expensive or will not run.
For many larger organisations, these costs are an evil necessity. They either send their staff on expensive training courses (so they can convert "Windows-speak" into something understandable) or buy in the expertise when needed. Then they grin and bear the continued costs to maintain these mental monsters they will never understand.
Yet for most of us it doesn't have to be like this. Consider the smaller business with perhaps a dozen small shops or offices scattered around the country. Each of these operates more or less independently on a day to day basis and has one or two staff who know how to run a PC properly. The solution is much cheaper both for initial purchase and ongoing maintenance. It's Windows XP.
To be more precise, Windows XP Professional. This can be run on a standard PC, configured as a standard PC, have much cheaper startup and ongoing maintenance costs and can be understood by most people operating a PC today.
As a server, Windows XP has a lot going for it. Loads of power and flexibility available if you need it (you probably won't) by using dual core or AMD X2 processors, huge storage space and good access speeds especially with the latest SATA2-300 hard drives, standard or security networking in workstation groups etc.etc.
Flexus Thin Client runs superbly on this "XP Server" setup and I'm sure most other networking stuff will also. So why waste your money and time on a "proper" server if you don't need to?

1 comment:

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