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Each of these applications were very easy and straightforward to install and administer, and due to their server-based environment, their benefits can be felt by all users over the network as soon as they have been deployed, without having to physically configure every client machine. In fact it would be hard to imaging a thin client deployment without one of these applications running on its servers, it would be akin to an athlete competing with clogs on instead of runners.
Regardless of whether you have a Terminal Services 2000/2003 deployment or Citrix, each of these applications is designed to help you get the best performance possible from your servers. But remember ensure your network is in tip top physical shape before deploying any applications.
Look out for...
When looking to optimise your thin client servers to enhance the user experience or make your server dollar go further, here are some of the issues you should consider:
- Perform your own in-house audit, or hire an external thin-client specialist/consultant to perform a thorough audit of your thin client network and infrastructure. Pay careful consideration to your network cabling, switching, and routing.This audit will reveal whether or not your company is in a position to deploy a thin client server acceleration application, or whether some money can be spent improving the environment to achieve the performance and reliability increase. Remember, an accelerator will not fix existing problems in the network. In fact, it may even cause more problems to a poorly-deployed network foundation.
- Ask the accelerator vendors to demonstrate their products in your environment, or provide your company with an evaluation before committing. Even if this costs some money and time to achieve, it is better to ensure that the planned acceleration will benefit the company and save some money rather than just stalling a server or network upgrade for a couple of months. There is no point in spending money to fix something up for a couple of months; these applications are designed as long term solutions, not stopgap measures and designed to be robust and scalable.
- Make sure the administration method suits your needs. The more features that can be tweaked from within the package, the better it can be customised for each particular deployment and application. For example, one thin client site may rely on a lot of graphical content running though its systems and naturally would need to prioritise that traffic. Another company may be using their clients to access large databases and that traffic is more important.
