Copyright 2004 OSDL, All rights reserved.

Desktop Linux Case Studies

2005

Linux Business DesktopCase Study: Linux Thin Client – A 12 Month

ReviewMartin P. Echt

MD, PhD, FACC, CEOCapital Cardiology Associates

In cooperation with LILLE Corp.

About Capital Cardiology Associates

• Over 40 Physicians, Surgeons & Providers• 7 Offices and 7 Hospitals in New York and Mass.• 200 employees• 128,000 Patient Visits (office & hospitals)• 92,000 Diagnostic Tests• 6,000 Catheterizations & Interventions• 800 Open Heart Surgeries• 380,000 Services billed/ year• $22,000,000 yearly revenue

Capital Cardiology Associates, PC provides a full range of diagnostic, interventional, therapeutic and preventive services in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases to patients throughout the Capital Region (upstate New York and Massachusetts).

MIS Situation

• Internet based EMR by Lille Corp. • DBase for diagnostic service reports (tests) and statistics (Oracle)• Billing and Patient Data Collection (Medical Manager, UNIX based)• Patient Services tracking (spreadsheets)• Financial & Business Software (MASS 90, FRX)• Analytical Software (Touchpoint)• Payroll & Employee Time monitoring (KRONOS, ADP)• Pacemaker monitoring Programs (PACEART)• Cardiac Catherization and Procedure imaging Software• Word & general Spreadsheets• Physician & Employee Time Schedules • Daily Hospital Rounds and Procedure Activity Lists• Hospital Patient Data Access (Citrix)• e-Mail

Challenges & Considerations

IT Challenges• Aging IT network in need of upgrades• Rapid network expansion due to business growth• Needed 75 new desktops• Needed to upgrade 75 existing desktops• Needed new servers and routers

Key Business Considerations• Easy & fast networking via broadband Internet where available• Shared File Access Environment• Low incremental Costs of Network Expansions• Minimize remote onsite IT – Services• Complete Integration of Key Business apps (Billing, Business records, EMR,

diagnostic tests, etc.)• Low Virus/Worm Susceptibility• Eliminate User Options and Preferences to increase Employee Productivity• Long Term Control over Costs

Evaluating the Desktop

Desktop Needs• Simple Key Business Applications (Billing, Charge Entries, Sales,

Inventory)• e-Mail• Internet Access• Data Base• Basic Word Processing, Spreadsheets with Internet Access• Specialty Programs limited to Key Management Employees

Desktop Options• Microsoft Upgrades and Expansion• Linux Thick Client (PCs)• Linux Thin Clients

Solution

Why we choose Linux thin clients• Lower Hardware Costs• Lower Installation and Configuration Costs• Lower Maintenance and “Upgrade” Costs• Lower “remote” Costs• Lower Depreciation Costs• Lower “Doodling” Costs (employee time wasters)

Affordability

Thick Client MS Thick LINUX Thin LINUX200

Cost Desktop $320,000 $280,000 $160,000Cost Server $181,000 $185,000 $194,000Gen. Busin mark up 20% 0.2 $100,200 $93,000 $70,800

TOTAL $601,200 $558,000 $424,800Conv. Costs per Station $3,006 $2,790 $2,124

Total Costs of Servers and Desktops

Yearly Operating Costs200 Desktop costs $166,000 $132,667 $46,667yearly server & labor costs $175,500 $166,000 $167,800Gen. Busin mark up 20% 0.2 $68,300 $59,733 $42,893TOTAL $409,800 $358,400 $257,360Yearly Costs per DT $2,049 $1,792 $1,287

"Doodling Costs" $150,000 $75,000 $0Yearly Costs per DT incl. "Doodling" $2,799 $2,167 $1,287

Annual Operating Costs

Affordability

Thick Thin Client ComparisonTotal Costs

$ 0

$ 1,000

$ 2,000

$ 3,000

$ 4,000

$ 5,000

$ 6,000

Initia l Co s ts pe r DT Yearly Co s ts pe r DT 1rs t yea r Ins ta ll & Maint.co s ts

Thick MS Thick LN Thin LN

Linux Business DesktopSolutions for the Enterprise

Mike DeNeffeSr. Director, Winterm Product Line

Wyse Technology

What is a thin client?

Display ProtocolX11, RDP, ICA

But store andexecute on servers

Programs display here.

User DesktopsUser Desktops DatacenterDatacenter

•Management Software

•Multi-User Windows Server

Management Control

•Linux Servers

•Unix Servers

Top 10 Thin Client Myths

• They’re just dumb terminals

• They have no power to run today’s applications

• They can not run latest browser or any browser

• They are task based: The can only run 1 session or application at a time

• They can not print

• They died with Larry Ellisons NC

• SunRays are the only thin client today

• They are expensive to buy and maintain

• Nobody uses them

• There is no cost saving

Added Benefits of Wyse Linux Thin Clients

Powered by Wyse Linux V6 Based on secure and reliable Linux 2.6.8

Stateless configuration Plug and Play installation No need to configure the client. Saves time and cost on installing the

client, especially in remote locationFree seating

Instantly access person desktop from anywhere in the network. User setting, such as application access and desktop settings are stored on the server.

Local Mozilla browser Access corporate web based application or Access the internet with feature rich browser

Total Application Solutions No need for local applications All applications runs on central server

Linux Business DesktopOptimizing Performance

Paul McCumberSoftware Technical Marketing Engineer

AMD

Thin Clients Powered by AMD

Commitment to the Thin Client MarketAMD provides low-power and high-performance processors that meet the needs of the growing thin client space. We have several generations of experience with this market and continue to see Thin Clients as a real growth opportunity and key market for AMD.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo and combinations thereof, Geode and GeodeLink are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names used in this presentation are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Thin Client Reference Design Kit (TC RDK)

• AMD is helping to enable the Thin Client Market– By delivering compact, low-power and high-performance systems

• AMD’s TC RDK looks at the total system solution– System Performance– System Power– System Cost

• By developing a complete solution, AMD has gained insight into the issues that confront Thin Client OEMs, ODMs, and the end user

Desktop vs. Thin Client

Long-term Availability

Reliability

High Performance

Form Factor

Power Consumption

Thin ClientDesktop PCs

Features

Thin Clients have their own unique set of requirements.

High Value Lower Value

AMD Geode GX Processors

*The AMD Geode GX 533@1.1W processor operates at 400MHz. Model numbers reflect performance as described here: http://www.amd.com/connectivitysolutions/geodegxbenchmark.

Improves performance and lowers overall size, power, and system cost

Highly integrated design (memory controller and high-performance 2D graphics engine)

Long-term supply for thin client customers

Long-term manufacturing and support

Up to 6GB/sec data movement bandwidth which results in higher overall system performance at a lower MHz*

Patented High-Speed GeodeLink™ Internal Bus Architecture

No heat sink typically required which allows for smaller form factors

2W Typical Power UsageCustomer BenefitsFeatures

AMD Geode™ GX Low Power x86 Thin Client Architecture

*The AMD Geode GX 533@1.1W processor operates at 400MHz. Model numbers reflect performance as described here: http://www.amd.com/connectivitysolutions/geodegxbenchmark.

4.8”

5.3”

AMD Value Add

AMD is committed to providing not just drivers but a complete software solution that optimizes the performance of our parts.

AMD continues to be committed to providing devices, software, partnerships, and reference designs to enhance our customers product quality, features, and time to market.

Anaconda Sports

New York-based Anaconda Sports, the largest retailer of amateur league sports and school district athletic equipment in the United States, wanted to build a cost-effective e-commerce Website and turned to Linux as a reliable, scalable and secure platform. Anaconda relies on IBM applications, middleware and Intel architecture servers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

ROI: Sales up 20 percent

Boscov's Department Store

The largest family-owned retailer in the United States, Boscov’s Department Store operates more than 40 stores in five states adding two or three stores a year. But its online Web e-commerce site is growing even faster, doubling in transactions annually. To slash the escalating software and systems administration costs required to run its expanding datacenter of standalone servers that power the Web site, Boscov’s consolidated everything onto a single IBM mainframe server running Novell SUSE Linux.

ROI: Software and systems administration savings in the first three years expected to exceed $1 million.

Burlington Coat Factory

For several years now, Burlington Coat factory has been running its enterprise on 5,000 Linux-based point of sale systems at more than 340 stores in 42 states nationwide. The next step was replacing its legacy large server systems. Recently Burlington turned to Novell SUSE Linux running on more than 2,000 clustered Intel architecture servers from IBM with a migration of two key applications in less than two weeks.

ROI: Hardware capital expenditure savings of tenfold compared to legacy UNIX environment.

GLOBUS

A leading European retailer with 20,000 employees at more than 90 locations, GLOBUS ran its business with a custom-developed ERP application on a proprietary UNIX system with a server based in each store. To cut both software and hardware expenditures, GLOBUS began to move to Intel architecture servers from Bull running Novell SUSE Linux, with two inexpensive servers replacing the single, expensive, proprietary server at each store.

ROI: Stores close each night 25 percent faster, with most of the ERP system now running on Linux, at much lower costs than before.

Mercadona

With nearly 900 stores around the country, Mercadona is Spain’s leading supermarket chain. Mercadona turned to Linux for a secure, flexible and cost-effective platform to run its business – both at individual stores as well as at the corporate central offices. Currently the chain is in the middle of a five-year deployment of more than 1,000 Intel architecture servers as well as 10,000 desktop/point of sale terminals, all running Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Retail Ventures, Inc.Retail Ventures, Inc. (RVI) is a publicly-traded holding company for three major retail

brands: DSW Shoe Warehouse, one of the largest shoe retailers in the U.S. with 184 stores; Filene’s Basement, the country’s oldest off-price store selling brand-name and designer fashions to men and women at 27 stores nationwide; and Value City Department Stores, an off-price department store chain with 114 stores in more than 30 markets. RVI turned to a data protection solution from BakBone Software running on Novell SUSE Linux to safeguard 14 TB of mission-critical data. The solution integrates across a mixed platform environment comprising Novell SUSE Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Sun Solaris servers. As a result, RVI has accelerated its data backups while dramatically reducing the time and effort to restore valuable financial, ERP, merchandising, warehousing and other retail information.

ROI: The time and effort to restore critical files has been reduced from more than five hours to less than 10 minutes at 60 percent the cost of competing solutions with the combination of BakBone and FalconStor’s VTL products.