IGEL thin clients in a virtual desktop environment can be up to 63% less harmful to the environment than a traditional PC deployment, according to an independent study conducted by the Fraunhofer (News - Alert) Institute in Germany.
This study analyzed two scenarios with virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs) across their entire lifecycle.
The first scenario was based at a Dutch healthcare organization and covered the entire lifecycle of the device: from its production, through five years of operation, all the way to its ultimate disposal.
The combination of IGEL thin clients and virtual desktops based on VMware View proved to be 47% less harmful to the climate than a PC workstation with locally installed applications put to equivalent use.
Researchers installed the second device at Fraunhofer and used Citrix XenApp and Citrix XenDesktop virtualization software.
According to a release, the global warming potential (GWP), calculated over a service life of three years, was 30% to 63% that of the PC workstation control scenario, depending on the type of user involved.
IGEL Technology says that the combination of an IGEL thin client and a shared desktop provisioned via Citrix XenApp (terminal server) is currently the best solution for medium-level users from an ecological and energy-efficiency perspective.
“Our conclusion from the study is that thin clients are definitely more environmentally-friendly and cost effective than the desktop PC,” declared Christian Knermann, project manager of the environmental impact study and deputy head of the IT Management department at Fraunhofer UMSICHT. “From an IT point of view, desktop virtualization is a prudent extension of the terminal server model, which provides for particularly demanding user scenarios in an efficient and environmentally conscious way. The integration of both technologies ultimately allows us optimal capacity utilization of our server hardware.”
“We are delighted with this informative study because it offers our customers further guidance and motivation to centralize their IT infrastructures in the interests of sustained cost savings,” added Simon Richards, UK general manager at IGEL Technology. “We’re also pleased that both scenarios show how IGEL thin clients contribute to climate protection and to reduction of electricity costs.”
Read a related article at TMCnet “IGEL Appoints Syscap as its Finance Provider for the Fast Growing Hosted Virtual Desktop Market.”
Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Rich Steeves
