There have been some recent success stories involving the federal government's use of virtual desktop solutions, writes Sun Microsystems Federal CTO Mark Perkins. His conclusion is that virtual desktop solutions are proving their worth to the federal agencies that have adopted them.

Among the examples Perkins cites are these:

• U.S. Army Intelligence Center deployed Sun Ray ultra-thin clients for a virtual desktop solution and saved $31 Million

• Sun Ray solutions helped the U.S. Navy Lab improve performance while reducing costs by 50%

• (and on the civilian side) Colorado State University reduced to less that 10% of a typical PC's power and reduced system maintenance time by 97%

Perkins mentions that Sun knows whereof it speaks when it comes to Sun Ray technology, pointing out that more than 18,000 (or 54%) of Sun employees work from home or in a flexible office using Sun Ray thin clients. This saves 104 hrs/year in commute time, $906 in car wear and tear, and $870/year (and climbing!) in gasoline savings per employee.

For those who still need to be persuaded of the value of the virtual desktop, Perkins adds the following arguments:

• Sun Ray ultra-thin client uses 1/10th of the power of a traditional PC (<25watts including the monitor)

• You can access Solaris, Linux, Windows, mainframes, and AS/400 on a single thin client

• A handful of administrators can manage thousands of desktops

• Sun Ray virtually eliminates the cost of client virus attacks

• Users can centralize data and applications for greater security, cut application upgrade time from weeks to hours, hot Desk between office, conference room, and home, and numerous additional benefits.

Still not persuaded? Perkins suggests having a look at Sun\'s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure ROI Calculator. This too, Perkins says, not only generates a TCO/ROI based on the input you provide, including the industry in which you are working, but also creates a recommended hardware and software configuration for the solution.

More Information

Is a Virtual Desktop Solutions worth it? - Perkin's blog entry

Sun Federal home page

Sun Virtualization Solutions

Sun Desktops and Workstations [...read more...]

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