Virtual Desktop – Case Study
Original State
The organization used classic PCs with MS Windows XP as end stations for its employees and servers with Novel netware for data sharing. User authentication as well as data and application access control were ensured by a Windows NT domain.
The Solution
In the first stage of the solution the communication infrastructure was changed to the TCP/IP protocol family. The Novel Netware server was removed and the Windows NT domain controller was replaced by a Linux server and Samba. The most important applications were then transferred to Sun Fire servers with Solaris OS.
In the next stage classic PCs were gradually replaced by thin Sun Ray clients – Sun Fire with Solaris OS and Sun Fire X2100 with Red Hat Linux Enterprise Server. For the large amount of applications used by the organization which are available only for MS Windows servers with MS Windows Server 2003 installed where these applications run and to which there is remote access by the use of Citrix Presentation Server. Controlled user access to the applications is ensured by Raydesk 2.0 desktop environment.
- NORMAL - basic profile for ordinary employees enabling access to ordinary applications (MS Office, Lotus Notes and the like)
- ADMINISTRATOR - is designated for IT adminitrators. In contrast to the NORMAL profile it contains additional applications necessary for the work of the administrators
- EXTERN - a profile designated for employees of the security guard and the reception; it only contains applications necessary for their work (for example attendance control applications)
- INTERN - a profile designated for internet workplaces; it contains only one application – a web browser which starts automatically after the user login
Acquisitions
Thanks to a centralized administration the operation expenses are lower. Sun Ray terminals do not require any maintenance or upgrades and compared with classic PCs its energie consumption is ten times lower. At the same time a transfer to the Linux/Solaris platform takes place in order to eliminate viruses, malware, rootkit and others since they prove to be an ideal alternative to PCs.
The Raydesk desktop environment enables users to access only selected applications according to their job title. Administrators can collectively add or remove applications to and from a whole group of users without the need to visit each user individually.