Early February 2011 Imaduddin School has established the first thin client network lab in the Maldives. The lab has been implemented to support the School Lab with 35 computer terminals using Chip PC, plug-pc LXP 2310 devices, which went live on 2nd February 2011. These devices are powered using Linux based operating system ThinX.
The lab was publicly announced and awarded on January 2011, and was handed-over in less than a month. The school is currently using the network along with iTalc School Management Software.
The aim of the project was to make the total cost of ownership low, and the return on investment be increased when compared to the use of a traditional computer network, fat-client. With the implementation of ChipPC Thin Client devices the total operation cost has been reduced to well below 90 percent.
In order to lower cost, this project was centered around the use of Open Source software where possible. To manage the network Open Source iTalc, School Management software was setup over Microsoft Windows Terminals using Microsoft Desktop Protocol (RDP), on a 100Mbs Ethernet network using star topology.
The School Lab senior teacher Mr. Anoop commented, "After a brief period of evaluation period, I have become to enjoy the thin-client environment which has made teaching and control of the network so much easy. I can see this project has been implemented with great care and I am happy to be in a position to utilize this great technology."
Thin-client networks is a proven and reliable technology at an affordable price using Chip PC devices and there is an increase in thin-client usage throughout the world. The main advantages of a thin client network, compared to a traditional network is low operating cost, high reliability, high security, less maintenance, longer mean time before failure and the ability to use on software package on many terminals. In general a thin-client mean time before failure is typically as much as 175,000 hours while fat-client is at 25,000 hours per terminal.
In addition to reliability and low cost one most significant benefit of thin-client network is in case of failure these networks can be setup and reloaded within minutes and they can be maintained, re-configured remotely.
Maldicore Group Pvt Ltd is the channel partner of Chip PC Technology since October 2010 and the first company created to help you realize the strategic value of Open Source Software in the Maldives.