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Resolutions - 2003.07.17 - 27134
MISCELLANEOUS RESOLUTION #03138 June 12, 2003 BY: GENERAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE, WILLIAM PATTERSON, CHAIRPERSON IN RE: DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - THIN CLIENT COMPUTING PROPOSAL TO THE OAKLAND COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen: WHEREAS the Department of Information Technology has identified Thin Client computing as a strategy for the execution of commonly used application software on a group of servers allowing the end-user devices to be a personal computer or Thin Client device and has recognized Thin Client computing as means to control future operating costs; and WHEREAS Thin Client comput:ng allows County wide application software upgrades to be performed in a timely manner and Thin Client computing devices require less hours for service and support; and WHEREAS Thin Client computing provides many other benefits such as improving the ability to manage software licenses, increased flexibility in disaster recovery planning, extension of the useful life of the current personal computers by configuring the personal computers with Thin Client agent software; and WHEREAS Thin Client computing can reduce energy consumption by using Thin Client devices and Thin Client computing increases data security by centralizing data storage for backup and anti-virus protection; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Oakland County Board of Commissioners approves the implementation of the Thin Client Computing Phase 1. Chairperson, on behalf of the General Government Committee, I move the adoption of the foregoing resolution. GENERAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE General Government Committee Vote: Motion carried unanimously on a roll call vote. Oa akland county t Mim; r Thin Client Computing Phase I and Phase 2 Proposal Executive Summary Introduction The Thin Client Phase 1 and Phase 2 Proposal is the initial step in implementing the strategy outlined in the Thin Client Computing document provided to the Board of Commissioners as part of the proposal packet. Industry analysts estimate the annual cost of operating and managing a network personal computer (PC) to be approximately $9,983 per year (Independent IT Analyst Gartner Research Note, February 26, 1998, page 2). Concern about the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for PCs is an industry wide issue and not unique to Oakland County. In an effort to address the TCO of PCs purchased and maintained by Oakland County, Information Technology has prepared this Thin Client Computing Phase 1 and Phase 2 Proposal. This proposal provides background information on differences between the Thick Client and Thin Client environments, some of the factors affecting the costs of the Thick Client environment, and the benefits of the Thin Client environment. This proposal further outlines the Thin Client Computing Phase 1 and Phase 2 implementation strategy and associated costs. Thick vs. Thin Clients - Definition Thick Client A Thick Client is a PC where the majority of the application software is installed and maintained on the local PC disk drive. Execution of the application occurs using the PC's processor(s), memory, and disk drive. Each PC contains a copy of the application software that must be individually updated by either a manual or automated means. Thin Client A Thin Client is a PC or Terminal Device with special Thin Client agent software that allows the device to execute application software utilizing the processor(s), memory, and disk drives of a shared pool of servers. Application software is installed and maintained on the central server(s). The Thin Client agent software is responsible for the transmission of keyboard and mouse information and rendering the contents of the computer display. The Thin Client agent software can execute on low processor power devices. Thick Client vs. Thin Client — Issues Some of the factors that contribute to expense of the Thick Client environment are as follows: — Labor Costs. The labor cost involved with installing and maintaining application software is a significant contributor to the cost of the Thick Client WOAKNWO2\VOL2TEPTVNFOTECIUMMORK6YThin Client\Thin client executive suinmary.cloc Page 1 • Thin Client Computing Phase 1 and Phase 2 Proposal Executive Summary environment. Because the software resides on each PC, each copy of the application must be updated individually through an automated or manual process. Automated updates can have failure rates of greater than 10% for a variety of reasons including the PC being powered off, insufficient available disk space, and missing or corrupt files due to local user action. A 10% failure rate for the approximately 3,000 county PCs would result in 300 service trips to the remedy the problem on PCs. In the event of a major application or an operating system upgrade, it is often impractical to automate an upgrade due to the complexity of the upgrade. In such cases, all 3,000 County PCs would require a service trip. Countywide upgrades of this type can easily take more than a year to accomplish and can consume thousands of dollars and labor hours. Contributing to the cost of software application maintenance is the geographic distribution of the County PCs. Approximately 500 PCs are at locations outside the County campus. — Device Life Cycle. A Thick Client environment incurs significant costs maintaining an appropriate base PC hardware configuration. As new releases of operating systems and application software come to the market, the demand for processor power, memory, and disk drive capacity continues to expand. This in turn obsoletes the existing PC hardware configuration. Typical estimates indicate that to meet the demand of new operating systems and application software, PC hardware must be "refreshed" every 3 to 5 years. A complete replacement of the County's 3,000 personal computers could exceed $7 million dollars. — Device Support and Maintenance. Additional costs of the Thick Client environment include hardware replacement, labor, and lost productivity costs due to failure of the PC components such as disk drives. Costs associated with protection of local data including anti-virus and backup processes contribute to the cost of the Thick Client. Some of the factors that contribute to the expense reductions of the Thin Client environment are as follows: — Server "Farm" Configuration. Application software installed and executed on server "farms" provide a central management point for upgrading operating systems and application software without a service trip. Software is upgraded on the servers and made available to the Thin Clients accessing the servers. — Device Life Cycle. Thin Client configuration can utilize low-end PCs. The low processor power requirements of the special Thin Client application software can be installed on older PCs, extending the useful life of the PCs as a computing platform. Maintenance on older PCs can be discontinued and the PCs operated until they fail. After the failure, PCs can be replaced with low M Oakland Count), whwegda WAKNWO2VVOL21DEPT\INFOTECHTM\WORK6 \Thin Client\Thin client executive summary.doc Page 2 • Oakiand County • Thin Client Computing Phase 1 and Phase 2 Proposal Executive Summary cost Thin Client "terminals". PCs need not be replaced to support new operating system or application software. — Terminal Devices. A Thin Client configuration allows for the use of lower cost Thin Client "terminal" devices. Most "terminal" devices have no moving parts, contributing to a much longer useful life when compared to a PC and lower energy consumption. — Data Security. In a Thin Client configuration, no data is stored locally. This contributes to the protection and security of the data by centralizing the data on servers where it can be included in a regular backup plan. Centralization of the data also increases control and security by not allowing unauthenticated access to sensitive data. Anti-virus software maintained on each server assures that anti-virus pattern files are being used to protect data and application software. Because applications are installed and managed on the central server farm, Thin Client users are not allowed to download and install application from the Internet or other sources. This reduces the chance of the introduction of infected or malicious . applications. County Savings Research has shown that the average annual cost of installing, running and maintaining a Thin Client device can be up to a third of the cost of operating the standard personal computer. Analysts estimate that Thin Clients reduce costs of desktop computing by 35 — 57% (Gartner 35%, Zona Research 57%) per year over a typical PC. • In a full implementation of the Thin Client Computing proposal, approximately 2400 (80%) of the County's Thick Client PCs would be converted to Thin Client terminals and infrastructure providing a significant savings to the County in operating costs over the Thick Client PC environment. The savings are attributable to cost reductions in hardware acquisition, PC software, PC software support and maintenance labor, PC related professional services for hardware and software, vehicles, and energy consumption. Proposed Thin Client - Strategy Information Technology proposes to use a phased approach in implementing the Thin Client environment and achieving the reduction in costs. The funding for Phase 1 is being requested in Fiscal Year 2003 as part of this propOsal. The funding for Phase 2 will be requested after the completion of Phase 1 during Fiscal Year 2004. In order to control costs, Phase 1 and Phase 2 will utilize the existing PCs as Thin Client devices. Acquisition of Thin Client "terminal" devices will be restricted to a minimum set for proof of concept and as replacements for PCs that may fail OAKNWOZVOLZDEPTUNFOTECH \PM\ WORK61Thin Client\Thin client executive summary.doc Page 3 Oakland County mown Hardware Server and Thin Client Hardware $ 32,000 $ 156,000 $ 90,000 $ 309,923 Professional Services and Consulting $ 264,018 $ 64,800 0 Software Licensing $ 65,410 $ 164,440 $ 4,433 Other Information Technology New Development Hours and Training $ 223,412 $ 226,545 Total Phase Costs $740,840 $ 860,141 Thin Client Computing Phase 'I and Phase 2 Proposal Executive Summary during the course of the project. Additionally, the Phase 1 and Phase 2 PCs will target PCs that use the minimum application software set (Office, Mainframe, Internet Explorer, and Outlook) so as to limit the need to integrate special applications into the Thin Client environment. Phase 1 is structured to establish the initial Thin Client Computing environment and deploy an initial group of Thin Client devices and PCs. Phase 1 will establish the base Thin Client server farm, the base Thin Client PC configuration, and deploy a small number of Thin Client devices. The primary goal of Phase 1 is to establish the baseline configuration and deployment strategy of the Thin Client environment. In addition, Phase 1 will implement a sufficient number of Thin Client PCs and devices to achieve a return on investment within 1 year for the infrastructure and professional services, providing the "proof of concept" for the project. Approximately 280 PCs will be converted to Thin Clients in Phase 1. Phase 2 of the Thin Client proposal will build on the infrastructure established by Phase 1. Phase 2 will require the incorporation of additional application software to allow the expanded use of the Thin Client PCs and devices to additional users. The target number of Thin Clients for Phase 2 is approximately 545. Phase 1 expects a March 2004 completion and Phase 2 expects an October 2004 completion. At the end of Phase 2, Oakland County will have deployed and have 825 operational thin client devices. Proposed Thin Client — Funding Requirements COST CATEGORY PHASE 1 COSTS PHASE 2 COSTS (requested FY03) (projected FY04) $1,509,950 Total Phase Savings Table 1— Thin Client Funding Requirements. VOAKNWOZVOLZDEPT\INFOTECH\PM\WORKaThin Clienahin client executive summary.doe Page 4 Oakland County mkiligan Thin Client Computing Phase I and Phase 2 Proposal Executive Summary Proposed Thin Client - Conclusion The implementation of Thin Client Phase I will provide the infrastructure for further Thin Client implementations thereby positioning the County to take advantage of the benefits of Thin Client computing including: • Performing Countywide application software upgrades in a timely manner • Increased data security by centralizing data storage for backup and anti-virus protection • Use of Thin Client computing personal computers and devices that require less hours for service and support • Irnprovethe ability to manage software licenses • Increased flexibility in disaster recovery planning • Data and application access in a manner associated with the user and independent of the personal computer or device utilized • Extended useful life of the current personal computers by configuring the personal computers with Thin Client agent software • Reduced energy consumption by using Thin Client devices \\OAKNWO2\VOL2\DEPININFOTECH\PM\WORK6 \Thin Client\Thin client executive summary. doe Page 5 As Of: May 22, 2003 T63010TC - Phase 1 and Phase 2 Total 825 Devices Oakland County - Thin Client Return on investment Analysis Project Summa _ _ •Year 1 Year 1 1 . Description I Phase 1 Phase 2 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 I Total _ Benefits/Savings: _ _ Tangible Benefits Subtotal: 689,394 1,386,486 122,905 135,195 148,714 163,586 2,646,280 Cost Avoidance Subtotal: 54,763 123,464 181,709 49,709 181,709 49,709 641,063 Costs: Development Services Subtotal: 478,340 291,345 0 0 0 0 769,685 . Hardware Subtotal:32,000 90,000 - 90,000 0 0 0 212,000 ' Software Subtotal: 65,410 164,440 48,886 52,775 57,053 61,758 450,322 _ Infrastructure Subtotal 156,000 309,923 141,351 124,191 124,191 . 124,191 979,847 Training Subtotal: 9,090 0 0 0 0 0 9,090 Oilier StibToTgl: 0______ 4,433 4,433 41433 4:431 4,433 22,165i I- - -- , Annual Statistics: - _ Annual Total Savings 744,157 1,509,950 304,614 184,904 330,423 213,295 3,287,343 Annual Total Costs 740,840 860,141_ 284,670 181,399 185,677 190,382 2,443,109 Annual Return on Investment 3,317 649,809 19,943 3,505 144,747 22,913 844,234 .- AnnualCos avilMigs ra-Eo 99.55% 56.96% 93.45% 98.10%- 56.19%- 89.26%_ . 'Project CUmulative Statistics: Cumulative Total Savings 744,157 2,254,107 2,558,721 2,743,625 3,074,048 3.,287,343 3,287,343 Cumulative Total Costs • 740,840 1,600,981 1,885,651 2,067,050 2,252,727 2,443,109 2,443,109 Cumulative Return on investment 3,317 653,126 673,069 676,574 821,321 844,234 844,234 Cumulative Cost/Savings Ratio 99.55% 71.03% _ 73.70% 75.34% 73.28% 74.32% • 74.32% Year Positive Payback Achieved Year 1 _ _ _ State or Federal ate? ate? _ Thin Client Computing Proposal Prepared by: Oakland County Information Technology May 23, 2003 Thin Client Computing Proposal Overview The introduction of the personal computer (PC) sparked a revolution in the way people work. Its simple interface and assortment of applications encouraged widespread deployment of PCs for use with shared applications, giving rise to client/server computing. With client/server computing model, the majority of software is loaded locally on a PC and the client does the majority of the processing. Since all software and maintenance is done locally (that is, on the PC), the PC is called a "Thick Client". One of the issues with a Thick Client/server model is that it quickly became more complex and expensive than first imagined. With all the software and processing being done locally, maintenance and support calls began to escalate. In addition, because of increased support and maintenance costs, it also became difficult to keep up with the new versions of software, security patches and PC virus control. Given the issues with Thick Client PCs, newer, simpler devices were introduced into the market that deliver the same flexibility, user-friendly applications, and productivity as a Thick Client PC, but at much lower costs to service, support, and perform upgrades. PCs are now joined by a new class of desktop client devices that simplify computing while also reducing operating, maintenance and support costs and while also improving security. These new devices are called "Thin Clients". Escalating Thick Client PC Costs is an Industry Issue The entire IT industry is looking at ways of reducing the complexity of the PC desktop. In Robert L. Mitchell's, August 26, 2002 COMPUTERWORLD article entitled "The Desktop Diet Plan" (article can be found in Appendix A at the end of this document), Mr. Mitchell documents the complexity issue and the industry wide problem of spiraling desktop costs. Mr. Mitchell indicates that Thin Client software has improved to the point that it is a viable alternative to a complex Thick Client desktop. In addition, many prominent IT companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, and Peoplesoft are addressing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) issues of Thick Client computing. As an example, Peoplesoft invested over a half a billion dollars in the conversion of its products to a browser based Thin Client environment. Peoplesoft being one of the innovators in the industry recognized the TCO issue and promptly address the situation moving its entire product line to the Thin Client model. In a Thin Client/server architecture, most of the processing is handled by the server (located centrally) and all the Thin Client has to do is process the display. Thin clients support the range of applications and platforms such as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, E-Mail, Mainframe, etc.) that the County relies on every day. By running the applications from a central server, Thin Clients improve security, allow for rapid deployment of software and/or upgrades, lower maintenance and support costs, and lower general Oakland County IT - 1 - 5/23/03 • • Thin Client Computing Proposal operations costs. Thin clients have the potential to provide the County with a powerful option in addressing the demands of modernizing its computing infrastructure while reducing costs. In section 4.6.1 of the Information Technology Strategic plan it was noted that the County was considering moving to Thin Client as an option for replacing 860 Gateway computers used for HR/FIS and other high end functions. In execution of the IT Strategic Plan, it is now time to consider Thin Client as a viable option for PC replacements. As access to government information and services continues to evolve towards open platforms via the web and other Thin Client technologies, the case for Thick Client/server computing is being fundamentally altered. The trend towards server-side Thin Client computing offers the County the opportunity to move strategically to a network centric model via Thin Client technologies. Thin Client technologies are being widely adopted by the private sector as a method to significantly reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for PCs and improve network performance. The use of Thin Client/server technology for standard business applications (i.e., Word, Excel, Access, E-Mail) in conjunction with Web or Java for business specific deployments is revolutionizing the way we view the role of the personal computer. The end result for the County is a more functional, updated and lower cost network appliance that continues to provide access to County information and county services at a reduced cost History Oakland County has been installing Personal Computers since 1993. Today, there are approximately 3000 desktops and 600 laptops in use by various County departments and agencies. Most Personal Computers are used for electronic mail, basic word processing, spreadsheets, personal databases, access to the mainframe, and various departmental applications. Laptops are primarily being used for off-site work and for dialup into the County network. Mass Storage at the Desktop It is interesting to note that in 1993 the entire disk storage for the County was about 80 Gigabytes. By comparison, it is more common to see everyday PC vendors selling 80 Gigabyte drives for home and business PCs. In just ten years the storage capacity for the entire County is now on a local PC hard disk! Given the mass amount of storage available via PCs and that individuals are storing more files to their local PC, it is more critical than ever to ensure that local backups of PC data files are being done on a regular basis. In addition, it is equally important that these backups be stored "off- site" for disaster recovery purposes. As illustrated by the 60,000 mugshots lost in Macomb County and the fire that destroyed the Clarkston District Court, backups and in particular "off-site" backups are critical. -2 5/23/03 Oakland County IT o Tedu • Seiteere • Hardrare 5500 5000 4500 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 0 Thin Client Computing Proposal On a regular basis, software manufacturers are providing updated versions and patches which are added to the operating system and standard desktop applications such as Word, Excel, Microsoft Access, Internet Explorer, and Anti-Virus. Some of the upgrades/patches are for security reasons where others are for fixing problems or enhancing product features. Most upgrades require technical staff members to deploy numerous software distributions or manually install new versions and patches. Because of the number of changes as well as the physical size of these upgrades, many of the upgrades must be performed manually. In addition, with the amount of resources and time required to manually update the operating system and desktop applications (such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, etc.) for the County, it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide timely software refreshes. The County is running Windows NT and Microsoft Office 97, and Outlook 2002 on its 3600 PCs and laptops. Having skipped the Windows 2000 and Microsoft Office 2002, the County must move to Windows XP and Office XP (or Office 11 due next year) in the future. Thus, we are currently behind two versions for both the operating system and its desktop suite of applications. As an example, the time required to visit each desktop and upgrade to WordPerfect was well over a year. Over a period of time, the use of a Thick Client personal computer requires that technical Help Desk Calls 1997-2002 Note: Help Desk Calls that could not be resolved for software or hardware issues were assigned to Customer Service Technicians and denoted as Techs on the graph. The majority of these calls required a trip to the desktop. 97-98 98-99 99.00 00-01 01-02 Year support staff attend to each personal computer in regards to software upgrades, equipment replacements, support problems, work orders for new software, etc. Over the past five years, the total number of work orders for the installation of hardware, software, patches, drivers, etc. resulted in approximately 50% (4154) trips to the desktop. In addition, the use of Thick Client PCs generated over 23,000 hardware and software related calls (Graph 1) over a five year period. Although the County has implemented automated software distribution, trips to the desktop remain due to 20% failure rate on software distributions (Note: Failures on software distributions are due to PCs not being left on at night and WinInstall services that are not running on a PC). The time and cost required to make a trip to a PC is further increased based on geography of the County. Having to cover 900 square miles to maintain 3000 PCs increases the time per service call. An average trip to a PC from time of call receipt to resolution is Oakland County IT - 3 - 5/23/03 • • Thin Client Computing Proposal approximately 1.75 hours. Given that the Customer Service Technician labor rate is $40.00 an hour with fringes, a trip to the PC costs $70.00 (before vehicle costs). Multiply 9,151 trips to the desktop (PC work orders 4,154 plus 4,997 Tech support calls) and the cost over five years is $640,570. Trips to the desktop are expensive. The total number of work orders, virus control, license compliance, security and other issues has hindered the ability of IT technical personnel to provide timely updates of software. The chart below illustrates the total volume of work orders completed by Customer Service Technicians from 1998 to 2002. Work Orders (1998-2002) 8308 Total 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 a # of TS/Vs 1398 1399 2000 2001 2002 In addition to keeping standard software current, PCs should be replaced every three to five years in order to run current applications and refresh the County's technological capabilities. The total cost for hardware alone exceeds over $8,400,000 every three to five years. To avoid additional expense the County has chosen to delay the replacement of PCs which vary in age from three to seven-years-old. Due to equipment breakdowns and data loss as these PCs age, it is important for the County to have a strategy for replacement. OAKNet Makes it Possible The implementation of OAKNet, provides the County with a high-speed network that can be used in support of the proposed Thin Client initiative. Because all the remote sites are connected via OAKNet, the County can centralize its PC computing operations, which allows the County to take advantage of the many benefits of the Thin Client environment. With the acceleration of information technology use in Oakland County, we find ourselves faced with the constant challenge of balancing customer requests for services and reducing costs. With the current budget shortfall situation and the possible loss of state revenue sharing in the near future, the gap between our budgets and the cost of acquiring and maintaining PCs is widening year after year. To resolve the dilemma, the Oakland County IT - 4 - 5/23/03 Thin Client *Computing Proposal County must create new alternatives to the spiraling cost of desktop PCs and related support. In an effort to reduce the Total Cost of PC Ownership (TCO) as part of its strategic plan, the Department of Information Technology has prepared this Thin Client Computing Proposal. Reducing Total Cost of PC Ownership Research has shown that the average annual cost of installing, running and maintaining a Thin Client computer system can be up to a third of the cost of operating the standard personal computer. Analysts estimate that thin clients reduce costs of desktop computing by 35 — 57 percent per year over a typical "Thick Client" PC (Gartner, 35%, Zona Research 57%). According to Gartner, the realized annual cost of operating and managing a network PC is approximately $9,983 per year (Gartner Research Note, February 26, 1998, page 2). Total Cost of PC Ownership (TCO) has many elements. Some of these elements include, but are not limited to: • The actual cost of acquiring the hardware and software • Hardware/software maintenance for the PC and all of its applications • User training • Software upgrades • Backup/Recovery • Virus Control • Help desk and customer service support staff (and associated training) • Network application support of the client machine • Connectivity to the network • Contracted technical support • Personnel involved in purchasing, accounting, and inventory of PCs • Computer Disposal (Nationwide, International Data Corporation estimates that average computer disposal costs for US companies is $272 per PC.) Although IT is working on a number of strategies to lower TCO, we find the trend towards network computing, built around the idea of server centric, Thin Client technologies to be worthy of evaluation. The remainder of this document describes the two alternatives available to the County, their respective advantages and disadvantages, and potential savings to the County. Alternative One: Thick Client PCs Oakland County IT personnel continue to maintain thick client PCs the way it does today. The cost of maintaining a thick client PC environment can be expected to be 35 to 57 percent higher than an alternative Thin Client device. By staying with this alternative, no -.5- 5/23/03 Oakland County IT Thin Client Computing Proposal change or investment is necessary; however the County will lag behind in addressing the demands of modernizing its computing infrastructure in terms of system refreshes, upgrades, license control and security without a substantial increase in staffing. Benefits of Thick Client PC Computing No Change Necessary. Given that nothing with the current process is modified, no changes are required. PCs are replaced as needed and software "refreshes" will happen as time allows. Training Elimination. The need for highly trained, technically competent IT staff to manage a server based environment is not required to maintain the current system. Individual Autonomy. Individuals and departments have their own autonomy in deciding what software to put on their departmental PCs. Problems associated with re- centralizing control of computing resources in the workplace and departmental software would not be an issue. PC Software Compatibility. All software designed to run under a particular operating system has a high probability of running on an individual PC and Operating System. Disadvantages of Thick Client PC Computing As might be expected, many of the disadvantages of Thick Client PC Computing are actually benefits to Thin Client. Some of the major disadvantages with staying with the status quo include: High Replacement Costs. A replacement of 2400 PCs would cost the County approximately $5,613,600 (2400 PCs times $2,339 per PC) for hardware using a Thick Client PC. By contrast, the cost of Thin Client infrastructure for the same quantity would be $2,304,000. A savings of $3,309,600 per replacement cycle. High PC "Refresh" Costs. Because with major "refreshes", the County has to manually install hardware, operating systems and applications software, the time it takes to refresh its PC infrastructure becomes costly. As an example, the County has had to make 5 trips to the desktop during the past seven years (Windows 95, WordPerfect Upgrade, NT/Office 97, HR/FIS, Integraph Hardware Upgrade, and soon to be Windows XP/Office XP). With the average PC refresh taking approximately 4 hours to complete and the cost of Customer Service Technician labor rate is $40.00 an hour with fringes, an upgrade of 3000 PCs cost the County $480,000 per upgrade (not including a 5000 to 10,000 hour pre-preparation costs). Multiply $480,000 times five "refreshes" over seven years and the total cost is $2,400,000. Trips to the PC to replace hardware and upgrade software are expensive. Oakland County IT - 6 - 5/23/03 Thin Client computing Proposal Increased Security and Virus Risk. Because of outdated security patches, the County is at increased risk for security breaches. Corruptible operating systems, hard disks drives, memory and other storage media on a PCs enable viruses to do malicious damage to PCs usually resulting in data loss (Based on industry standards study by Hewlett Packard that 80% of PCs are not backed up by the individuals using them.) From a risk management standpoint, restricting an individual's ability to bring a virus into the network significantly reduces the threat. No Process Simplification and Wastes Effort. Staying with the current process does not simplify or eliminate wasted effort. For example, we still are getting 4600 average help desk calls per year that will most likely increase as PCs continue to age. No error or TCO reduction. By staying with the status quo, the County is not reducing the opportunities for error and reducing total cost of ownership. The current process does not add value and eliminate the amount of labor required to maintain and support Thick Client PCs. Reduced License Control and Increased County Liability. Analyzing data and trends in hundreds of IT asset management projects encompassing millions of desktops, Micropath, a Bellevue, Washington IT asset management firm found that the average workstation has at least $405 worth of unregistered software installed on each system. 2400 PCs times the $405 worth of unregistered software plus a 30% estimated penalty places the County at a minimum liability of $1,281,600. Can the County afford this potential liability plus penalties? Continuous/Timely PC Upgrades. The present process does not eliminate the time consuming process of "refreshing" PCs every 3 to 5 years. In addition, most "refresh" deployments would take over a year to complete and are very costly as mentioned previously. Limited Disaster Recovery. Implementation of our current disaster recovery for PCs in the event of a disaster situation might take months rather than days with a Thin Client environment. By comparison, a "hot" or "cold" disaster recovery site with Thin Client infrastructure could be initiated within hours. Worse yet, the recovery of data located on PCs within the County would most likely be gone forever as based on the Hewlett Packard industry study that most end users do not back up their data. Access Database Version Changes. The use of individual Microsoft Access databases by various departments has resulted in IT having to convert or maintain various versions of Access on many individual PC's. Many times Access databases must be converted to the new version of Access before the County can roll-out an upgrade or refresh. The end result is delayed deployments and associated conversion costs. In a Thin Client environment, the databases could remain under their current version (be placed on a central server) and be converted at IT's or the customer's convenience. Oakland County IT - - 5/23/03 Thin Client *Computing Proposal No Reduction in Energy Requirements. Thick Client PCs utilize substantially more energy than Thin Client devices, Energy usage for nine years for 2400 PCs is estimated at $1,036,188. By comparison, a Thin Client's energy usage for nine years is $521,167. The difference is a $515,021 savings to the County over nine years. Alternative Two: Thin Client Convert a minimum of 80% of 3000 computers (2400) to a Thin Client architecture by providing access to non-web applications via a centralized Citrix server farm. A Thin Client architecture will allow low cost terminals or personal computers to access everything from a centralized server. Applications and data are deployed, processed, managed, and supported at the central server. Therefore, no information is stored on the hard drive of the individuals PC. Since everything is centralized, it eliminates the need for technical support staff to attend to each PC on the network thus enabling them to be re-allocated in support of Thin Client and other projects. Note: With this alternative the Customer Service Technicians that currently support the 2400 PCs will be retrained and their positions reclassified to Network System Analysts. It is estimated that 1 Customer Service Technician is currently supporting 360 PCs. Benefits of Thin Client Computing The benefits of Thin Client computing are many and compelling. Oakland County can benefit from Thin Client computing in many ways such as: Reduces Deployment Time/Costs. After PCs have been in the field for some time, software is loaded, modified, and deleted. Given the variability between PCs from their original quality assured software load, the quality assurance and preparation costs of doing upgrades is greatly increased when using individual PCs. In a Citrix server environment, all standards are maintained and constantly quality assured, which should reduce preparation costs. Deployment of applications for "Thick-Client" individual PCs can take months to a year to complete while pre-tested applications can be deployed via Thin Client in less than a day, Thin Clients reduce the time to deploy applications needing to be immediately deployed to County employees. An average PC takes approximately 4 hours to upgrade by a customer service representative, A Thin Client terminal by contrast would take approximately 1 hour to upgrade. If the labor rate is $40.00 an hour with fringes, the savings on 2400 PCs per upgrade is $288,000 (3 hours times 2400 times 40.00 per hour). Additionally, if the County chose to deploy Wyse Thin Client devices, the useful life is approximately 6 times an average PC (See "Longer Life Expectancy" on the following pages). Oakland County IT - 8 - 5/23/03 Thin Client 'Computing Proposal By reducing deployment time, the level of service enjoyed by end-users should increase markedly as the applications can be updated as software versions change. Keeping current allows end users to no longer work on "outdated" software. Reduces the Need to Upgrade PCs. Thin Client deployment eliminates the need for the "continuous" upgrading of PC hardware in 80% of the cases (based on 80% switch to Thin Client). Cost of hardware for one upgrade alone for 2400 PCs is $5,613,600. Improves License Control. Software licensing can be better maintained and inventoried in a Thin Client environment because all software is loaded on a central server. Based on industry data (as mentioned in the Micropath study) with 2400 PCs, an estimate of potential outstanding liability from unregistered software loaded by employees is over $1.0 million. Disaster Recovery. The use of "Thin Client" computing, if implemented properly, could provide quick access to Office Automation and enterprise applications so that the County could continue to operate given a 9/11 or other disaster situation without being located on the County campus. Since all information is located centrally using Citrix and a Thin Client architecture, the County could operate all its workstations from its disaster recovery site or other "Hot Site" (i.e., Southfield, Livonia, or other). HIPAA Compliance. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (Abbreviated as HIPAA) mandates enterprise-wide compliance which will require the County to reengineer all processes surrounding the capture, storage and transmission of health information. The technical requirements of HLPAA encompass such things as ensuring secure authentication from secured systems. The encryption standards built into this Thin Client proposal meet the requirements for the technical portion of HIPAA security. Although the procedural aspects of HIPAA can not be addressed by Thin Client technology, the technical requirements for secure authentication and encryption assists with the County's implementation of the HIPAA regulations. Better Device Security and Manageability. Although this is a seemingly simple point, it cannot be understated: Thin Clients do not have corruptible operating systems because they do not contain hard drives. Software (i.e., viruses) cannot be loaded onto the desktop to wreak havoc. Those few users who may have the need to download software onto the server are limited by environmental constraints as defined by the server administrator. These constraints are far more secure and manageable than anything that can be done on a desktop PC. Backup/Recovery of Individual PC Files. In addition to security, the recovery of data is also enhanced. A recent study by Hewlett Packard indicated that 80% of corporate desktop PCs are not backed up by the individuals using them. Given that most of the County's PC equipment is between four and seven years old, accelerated hardware failures can be anticipated. How much productivity will be lost through the loss of local databases, documents, and spreadsheets due to hardware failure? Oakland County IT - 9 - 5/23/03 Thin Client 'Computing Proposal Easy/Timely Deployment of Applications. Systems and applications can just as easily be made available to 2,400 users as to 100. Upgrades that can take over a year to deploy can be deployed in a weekend by utilizing a Thin Client. Overall PC Cost Reduction. If the County chooses to purchase Thin Client terminals, these terminals are much cheaper to purchase, install, and maintain. Thin Client terminals to be used would cost approximately $800 (Note: If the County elected to use current PCs for a Thin Client terminal, the immediate cost per device would be zero, notwithstanding server costs and terminal replacement cost). The PCs would be replaced as they break over time. By contrast, our current Dell County PC cost is $2,339. Each upgrade cycle, the County would save approximately $6,904,800 in hardware costs alone. Add in upgrade preparation, quality assurance, system preparation, delivery, setup costs, and deployment, and the costs easily exceed $10,000,000. Complete Access to Information. Everything needed by the user can be obtained from the server via their Thin Client terminal or home PC (if desired). The same access (desktop) provided at work can also be accessed via the Internet or via a private dialup service where desired. The use of a web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer) for all applications would probably eliminate the need for a Virtual Private Network (VPN) as normal browser security could be employed (Note: a VPN is a combination of software and hardware used for encrypting information as it travels across the Internet). Reduced Energy Consumption. The cost of actually powering the PCs will be reduced if the County chooses to purchase Thin Client terminals. The energy required to run the server and its terminals is far less than operating standard PCs. An average County PC energy consumption is estimated to cost $28.73 (est. 0.065 per kilowatt hour) per year. A Thin Client terminal's yearly energy consumption is estimated to cost $4.06 per year. The on-going cost savings in energy for 2400 PCs for nine years is $515,021. Longer Life Expectancy. Thin Client terminals have a longer life expectancy than regular PCs. PCs are often out-dated by new technology, whereas Thin Client terminals can simply be uploaded with new applications. The MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) for the average PC is 25,000 hours. By comparison, thin client MTBF is 175,000 hours. Essentially, Thin Client devices last 6 times longer. Increased Equipment Reliability. Thin Client terminals offer increased reliability because they have no moving parts and are less likely to be affected by dirt, dust and other environmental elements. In areas such as the Medical Examiners Office (bacteria/virus contamination), or the Central Garage (dirt/exhaust) where contamination to PCs cannot be prevented, replacement with a Thin Client PC would result in a savings of approximately $1,539 (PC Cost $2,339 minus Thin Client Terminal Cost $800) per PC. Less Downtime. Individual computer downtime is reduced when a problem occurs with a Thin Client terminal because the user can simply move to another terminal without losing any information. In addition, since all data is stored centrally, there is no need to -10- 5/23/03 Oakland County IT Thin Client Computing Proposal copy documents between computers via disk or e-mail because all data inputted is saved centrally, thus available on the central server. Reduced Contractor/Maintenance Support Staffing. Less contractor based support staff will be required to deal with problem PCs as PCs and Thin Client terminals can easily be swapped and replaced using a spare Thin Client terminal maintenance plan. Thin Client terminals access everything from a central server. Applications and data are deployed, processed, managed, and supported at the central server, and information is stored on the server rather than the hard drive of the PC. Since everything is centralized, it eliminates the need for technical support staff to attend to each PC on the network. Improved Document and Applications Security. Security is improved as each terminal can be configured for each personal user, which ensures that users can only look at documents and applications they are permitted to use. In addition, Thin Client terminals ensure that nothing can be added or removed from the system unless by authorized personnel. Familiar "End User" Environment. The majority of Thin Client computers use the Windows operating system and its standard application packages, thereby providing end users with a familiar operating environment. The familiar environment thereby reduces the need for extra training and support. Standardized Documentation. All documentation is held in a central place that can easily be updated when changes occur. Reduced Licensing/Maintenance Costs. Bypassing Windows Terminal Server (Citrix) for business specific applications utilizing Web or Java provides more scalability, better user performance, and lower total acquisition costs for application deployment. The use of a Citrix server farm allows for the concurrent licensing of applications which should serve to reduce licensing and "on-going" maintenance costs. HelpDesk/Support costs. HelpDesk/Support costs include the cost of providing technical support and helpdesk services for end users including hardware, software (OS, Utilities, and applications) and network connectivity. With a Citrix solution, PCs run in a simplified configuration (no applications installed and running on the desktops) and there is no local OS upgrade requirement since the upgrade takes place one time on the central server. Conversion to a "server" computing model leads to fewer support calls because no application installation or maintenance is necessary on the desktops. Training Costs. Training Costs include costs for end-user training and technical/support staff training. Generally, training costs are reduced by 25% in a Citrix environment over the non-Citrix environment (per Citrix web site). Reduction in License Auditing Costs. Since all software is located on the servers, the maintenance costs related to running monthly software audit reports and comparing actual licenses to PC loaded licenses is actually reduced. -11- 5/23/03 Oakland County IT • • Thin Client Computing Proposal Disadvantages of Thin Client Computing It is important to remember that Thin Client is by no means a panacea. Thin Clients pose a host of new problems not unique to network centric computing, but certainly more pronounced. Some of the associated risks include: • Risks associated with single points of network failure • The need for highly trained, technically competent IT staff to manage a server based environment • Departmental concerns associated with centralizing control of computing resources in the workplace and departmental software. County Savings By converting 2400 (80%) of the County's Thick Client PC to Thin Client terminals and infrastructure, the County will achieve significant savings attributable to cost reductions in Hardware, PC Software, PC Software Support and Maintenance, PC Related Professional Services, Vehicles and Energy. The Thin Client project plan redesigns a business process Such redesigns are called Business Process Reengineering • Business Process Reengineering is based on the principles that: o The focus is on simplifying a process and eliminating wasted effort o All activities that do not add value to the product or service should be eliminated o The redesign will reduce opportunities for error and reduce cost County Savings Assumptions • PC Hardware. The cost savings from implementing this solution are based on the assumption that the older personal computers would no longer have to be replaced with more powerful PCs to support new operating systems and applications. With replacement, 2400 devices would be required at a current County blanket cost of $2,339 per PC. Instead, the Thin Client system utilizes 2400 Thin Client Terminals. • PC Hardware Maintenance. PC hardware maintenance includes the cost to maintain the County's personal computers. Yearly maintenance savings are derived from eliminating hardware maintenance from vendors currently supporting 2400 PCs. The PC hardware maintenance would be eliminated because replacement terminals are used to replace PCs as the result of hardware failure or corruption. -12- 5/23103 Oakland County IT Thin Client Computing Proposal Investment Costs • Infrastructure Costs. Infrastructure costs include the cost of hardware, base operating system, Metaframe XPe, utilities (Anti-Virus, System Management) and hardware/software maintenance. It is estimated that 45 servers will be required running 50 concurrent Metaframe XPe users totaling 2000 concurrent users. In addition, software costs have been added for Windows 2000, Terminal Server Client Access Licenses, and Metaframe XPe. • Additional Training. Includes the cost to certify 6 CSRs in Metaframe XPe and Windows 2000. Additional training costs are estimated at $60,000. • Replacement Terminals. Replacement terminals are used to replace PCs which require replacement due to hardware failure. The replacement terminal cost $800 per unit. • Position Reclassification Upgrades. Former CSRs will be trained and utilized as Network System Analysts to support Thin Client and other projects. • Software Licenses. The cost of purchasing, upgrading, and maintaining software licenses. Savings are attributable to savings associated with not having to license WinInstall and Census software because they will no longer be required for 2400 PCs. • CSR Staff Re-positioning. There are currently 6 Customer Service Representatives (CSR) supporting 3600 PCs in the County. Each CSR is currently supporting 600 PCs. Given that there will be only 1200 PCs to maintain after the 80% PC reduction (600 Laptops and 600 PCs), the number of CSRs required for support will be 2. Existing staff would be used to support the Thin Client environment as well as assist with Thick Clients as needed. Success Stories and Additional Information The success of Thin Client computing is well documented in the public and private sector as an effective approach to reducing Total Cost of Ownership for PC computing. Some examples of public entities successfully using this technology are: Oakland County, Michigan —26 Fire Agencies using SunPro Fire Records Management, Microsoft Excel and Word (400 total users) in a Thin Client environment. 12 Police Departments utilizing Crimeview (GIS Analysis Tool) with approximately 90 total users. Contra Costa County, California — 1500 users using various applications. Contra Costa County plans to introduce more Thin Client devices to replace existing PCs as they break. -13- 5/23/03 Oakland County IT Thin Client Computing Proposal State of Colorado Dept. of Public Safety - deploy applications (office automation and others) to patrol cars. Expanding to all users for office automation using wireless etc.. Dept. of Human Services - Office Automation and Case Work Access for 3,000 users. City/County Denver - 2,000+ users using office automation applications. Federal Los Almos - 3,000 - 4,000 users using office automation and other applications. Sandia - 3,000 users doing office automation and other applications. National Park Services - 5,000 users doing office automation and other applications. Fish & Wildlife - 1,500 using doing office automation and other applications. Appendix B contains Success Stories, Case Studies and other related information from various sources regarding Thin Client Computing. Recommendation With the acceleration of information technology use in Oakland County, we find ourselves faced with the constant challenge of balancing customer requests for services, costs, and outcome. The gap between our budgets and the cost of acquiring and maintaining IT is widening year after year. We must create new alternative to the spiraling costs of desktops. The alternative is to move to Thin Client computing. While there are some disadvantages to Thin Client Computing, we believe there are workable solutions to these issues and that they do not present significant obstacles to Thin Client computing. The management and cost benefits offered by these technologies are compelling, as is the case made by the fact that technology environments are evolving towards platform independent, network centric models. Together, thin client hardware and software translates to simpler, more cost effective access to information and government services. The Alternative 2: Thin Client computing plan addresses those cost reductions and provides the opportunity for the county to realize the many benefits as mentioned on the previous pages. -14- 5/23/03 Oakland County IT • Thin Client Computing Proposal In Summary By implementing Alternative 2: Thin Client plan, the County can realize the following benefits: • The estimated savings over nine years is $16,470,666. • Much needed resources to be re-allocated in support of projects without the need for hiring or contracting additional personnel. • A plan that would negate the need for continuous time-consuming upgrades to client software and hardware. By eliminating trips to PCs, the County eliminates the capital and labor costs of upgrading PCs every three to five years. • A plan which utilizes servers storing data and applications that can be easily backed up and secured. Because all user data resides on a file server, the County removes the risk of data loss or corruption due to desktop hard disk crashes, file corruption, or workstation induced viruses. Centralizing the storage of data and applications also reduces the cost of maintenance, backups, disaster recovery and provides additional security. • Oakland County can improve the return on technology investments with better software license management and more efficient network bandwidth use. • From a software perspective, the advantages of Thin Client computing are fast performance, easy installation and upgrades, simpler administration and management, and enhanced security. • The plan provides for County employees to have the productivity tools they need without losing access to existing software applications. In addition, the plan also offers PC users a simpler, more secure, and up-to-date desktop. • A plan that provides application access to all users regardless of location. • Improves license control limiting the County's liability for unregistered software. -15- 5/23/03 Oakland County IT Thin Client Computing Proposal Definitions Thick Client In a thick client/server architecture the majority of software is loaded on the PC, the PC does the majority of the processing. Thin Client In a Thin Client/server architecture, most of the processing is handled by the server and all the web browser has to do is process the display. VPN or Virtual Private Network A Virtual Private Network is a combination of software and hardware used for encrypting information as it travels across the Internet 'Oakland County IT -16- 5/23/03 Thin Client Computing Proposal Appendix A -17- 5/23/03 Oakland County IT URCES You'll find lots of resources on thin dents online: O (Wield:ink 31959 wwmcomputerwerld.com RESO ROBERT L. MITCHELL The Desktop Diet Plan THE WINDOWS PC has pushed too much complexity onto the desk- top. What's worse, every user thinks he's entitled to a complex, gen- eral-purpose Windows-based computing machine. Don't believe it? Just try to pry that Windows PC from any user's cold, dead fingers. Analysts peg annual desktop management costs at more than $10,000 per desktop, and it's not hard to understand why. Bloated Windows registries, dis- parate PC hardware and an array of desktop applica- tions create a complex web of variables that require a sophisticated and costly management infrastructure, all to maintain what TT hopes will be the same basic applications across thousands of machines. Thin-client technologies, such as Citrix's Meta- Frame XP and Microsoft's Terminal Services, bring much of that complexity back into the data center, where IT can manage it more easily — and without unnecessary replication. These tools centralize desk- top management by sharing out server- based instances of Windows and applica- tions to end users. Only screen images and keystrokes pass between the client and server, requiring about 20K bit/sec. of band- width. But while these tools have been used for remote server administration and remote desktop connectivity over bandwidth-starved wide-area net- works, most companies have shied away from using them for delivering line-of-hecm PCS applirnrions in- side the firewall. It's time to take another look. Thin-client software has improved of late. Both MetaFrame XP and Terminal Services in the upcom- ing Windows .Net Server boast improved speed and scalability and can use Active Directory to allow role-based access to customized application sets. Both also offer a browser plug-in client and can pre- sent the user's applications on a customized, easy-to- navigate intranet Web page. On the scalability front, support for load-balancing allows servers to scale out. MetaFrame XP provides an additional lay- er of fault tolerance by allowing server farms to be distributed across data centers. Meanwhile, the arrival of systems based on Intel's Itanium 2 procesor, with its Level 3 cache and 64-bit memory architecture, promises to dramatically increase the number of supported users per server. On the client side, machines such as the $299 Wyse Winterm 1200LE deliver a stateless user desktop with an embedded Microsoft or Citrix client. But there's no need to throw existing hardware away, since any ma- chine with a browser can serve as a thin client. And because the architecture decouples the end-user PC hardware from the desktop operating system and ap- plication software, software upgrades and service- pack updates can roll out more rapidly. In organizations with many remote offices, a thin- client system could eliminate the need for some dis- tributed file and application servers. One IT execu- tive at a large U.S. bank says he expects that strategy to cut TCO by 75%, for a savings of $9 million a year. These developments should make thin clients hard to resist. But end users and IT still have reservations. The biggest obstacle may he political. TT still must overcome objections from users who aren't likely to cotton to anything that restricts their God-given right to a PC. A very stable thin-client device with a nice color LCD panel might, however, make con- verts of those struggling with the Win 9x blue screen of death. In larger organizations, resistance may also come from help desk teams who see thin-client tech- nology as a threat to their jobs. IT managers are also wary of the extra integration work that may be required to add thin-client software to the application and server mix. They must weigh that against the effort of packaging, distributing and managing software across thousands of PCs. And users of CAD and other CPU-intensive applications, as well as mobile users who need off-line access to ap- plications, may not fit a thin-client model. Many end users, however, merely run general line-of-business applications and don't need traditional desktops to do to their jobs, much as they think they do. And in today's connected world, users often can't do much more than play solitaire when they lose network dial tone anyway. For these users, a thin-client system is . more efficient and manageable. So before you go forward with that next major desktop deployment, check out the thin-client alternative. If your help desk objects, ask them if they'd like to do some- thing more interesting than troubleshoot- ing those 10,000 Windows registries. ) Thin Client Computing Proposal Appendix B Oakland County IT -18- 5/23/03 "Goods are very cut and dried. It's much more conducive to reverse auctions. Marketplace County thins enerw biiis Cantra Costa County, Calif., could save more than $224,000 a year in electricity costs by using thin ap- pliances rather than personal computers. The thin-client appliances tap central servers running Microsoft Corp. Windows applications and dis- play the applications on desktop monitors. They use energy-efficient processors and have no internal moving parts such as fans or disk drives, enabling the devices to use only seven to 10 watts of electricity per hour. Personal computers can use as much as 200 watts per hour. Wyse Technology Inc. estimates that the thin-client appliances save the county an average of 90 watts per hour per appliance — which is good news given the the local energy crunch. A thin client looks more or less like any other desktop computer. It includes a keyboard and a monitor, but there is no CPU. Instead, the client connects to a The Minnesota Department of Administration has launched a reverse auction pi- lot in hopes of saving money on purchases of goods. Minnesota is one of the first states to use re- verse auctions, in which vendors compete against each other online in real time for state contracts. The lowest bidder wins the contract, and that saves the state money because companies will lower their usual prices to win the deal. The Materials Management Divi- sion of the state's Department of server to process applications, ac- cess files, print and perform other services, but it costs less because fewer technical staff members can now help more users. Users need only plug in and log on as they would with a normal computer be- cause user information is stored on the server, allowing users to cus- tomize their desktops as they would on any other PC. Software upgrades and backups are han- dled by one system administrator and deployed to all thin- client desktops automatically. Steve Steinbrecher, the county's chief information officer, said the en- ergy savings from the thin clients is an added bonus from a product that county officials wanted to buy anyway. Administration (www.nund. admain.statearunus), the agency responsible for buying goods and services for several agencies, is han- dling the pilot. Brenda Willard, IVIMD's acquisitions manager, said state legislators were happy to support the program as long as it dealt with goods and did not interfere with existing state contracts for services or construction. "Which was just fine with us," Willard said. "Goods are very cut and dried. This is what you want, "In 1996, we were looking around during the design phase of what was to become our county (enterprise re- source planning) system,' Steinbrecher said, "and I ba- sically said I didn't want peo- ple screwing around at their desktops — downloading things they shouldn't, saving files onto their hard drives that didn't need to be there." Maintenance costs have dropped 38 percent in four years because there are fewer hard drives. Steinbrecher said the county (svww.co. contra-costa.ca.us) was the first in California to embrace thin-client technology on a broad scale, having set up thin-client applica- tions for more than 1,500. employees. Steinbrecher plans to introduce more thin-appliance products to re- place existing PCs as they break. — Nicholas Morehead this is when you want it. It's much more conducive to reverse auctions." The inaugural auction on June 21 was for the state Department of Corrections. Officials bought 500,000 pounds of aluminum for li- cense plates, saving about $35,000. Minnesota used MaterialNet (www. materialnet.com) to handle the auc- tion. They also plan to use Procuri Inc. (www.procuri.com) to handle at least one other auction, likely in- volving office paper or road salt. Willard said MMD officials want to see both vendors handle an auc- tion before choosing one for a long-term contract by the end of • the year. Florida and Pennsylvania also have reverse auction systems in place. — Nicholas Morehead Minnesota tests reverse auctions "I didn't want people.. .down- loading things they shouldn't, saving files onto their hard drives that didn't need to be there." 40 civie.COm August 2001 29 fULY I. 2 00 2 OERAL COMPUTER WEEK IBRIEFING New reasons to get slim Telecommuting, post-Sept. II priorities renew interest in thin-client computing BY LARRY STEVENS T wo years ago, the General Services Administration Public Buildings Service's New England region as: sembled its employees in a town hall meeting. Such get-togethers, aimed at un- covering problems and soliciting sugges- tions, are not unusual for the agency. But as Jim LeVerso, chief information officer of the region, listened to the pro- ceedings, it occurred to him that this meeting was different. In the past, em- ployees lobbied the administration to al- low them to do more work away from the office. "This time, it was the admin- istration that was saying, 'We want you to telecommute. Tell us what we need to do to make that possible," LeVerso said. Telecommuting appears to be chang- ing from merely a convenience for work- A potential advantage of server-based computing (S BC) is that the particular client device becomes immaterial. As long as the users can connect to the server via the Internet or a private network, it doesn't matter if they're using the latest PC, one that is 5 years old, a handheld computer, a wireless phone or a thin-client terminal, which is a stripped-down PC without drives. Despite this flexibility — with the possi- ble exception of thin-client terminals — the use of alternative client platforms does not seem to be growing rapidly. Offi- cials at Citrix Systems Inc., the primary SBC vendor, lack exact statistics, but they estimate that fully 70 percent of their customers' users have standard Mi- crosoft Corp. Windows 32-bit PCs. The re- maining 30 percent use Unix worksta- tions, Apple Computer Inc. Macintoshes. ers to a strategic goal for some agencies. Similarly, the technology that LeVerso chose to enable the telecorrunuting pro- gram — server-based computing (SBC, also called thin-client com- puting) — is taking on a more important role. In SI3C, software applica- tions — from word processing programs to accounting appli- cations — run centrally on a server, and only the user inter- face and necessary Files and data are transmitted to users' PCs or other Web- connected devices. This approach makes it art ef- fective platform for telecom- various handheld devices such as person- al digital assistants or smart phones, and thin-client terminals. David Friedlander, an industry analyst with Giga Information Group Inc., believes that few, if any, agencies will encourage workers to connect to their applications via handheld devices, rather than PCs. "Most applications' interfaces are too complex to be displayed and used com- fortably on a PDA or cell phone," he said. One solution is to provide a separate user interface that contains a small subset of the full application for PDAs. Although Friedlander acknowledges that there may be some instances where this approach is helpful; "In general, there is very little perceived value In using a PDA [for thin-client computing]. Few agencies will invest in it." — Larry Stevens muting. SBC backers say that its ap- proach also makes it well-suited for two new post-Sept. ix priorities: enabling more data sharing by agencies and help- ing agencies to continue running in case disaster strikes. Catching On SBC has been available for sev- eral years, but David Friedlan- der, an industry analyst with Giga Information Group Inc., said that the biggest change in ; government as well as commer- cial usage is the increase in the size of installations. "During the past two years, SBC has been moving steadily upstream from its start as a workgroup solution to en- terprisewide deployments," he said. He pointed out that more iFobust management tools and performance enhancements have encouraged agencies with large numbers of users, such as the GSA Pub- lic Buildings Service, to consider SBC. Before choosing an SBC solution, LeVerso and his colleagues laid out the requirements for the future telecom- muting program. A good system would enable employees to: • Access all applications from any PC. • Run applications at home, on the road cr at a client site, even if it meant con- necting to the office s-erver via low-speed dial-up lines. • Start work at one location and pickup where they left off at a different location with no loss of data. It was already a tall order when GSA officials added, "'Figure out how to make it happen. And by the way, we can't of- fer you any additional resources or peo- ple," LeVerso said. Unfortunately, the office's applications were too resource-intensive to run effi- ciently cn a wide-area network. The plan might work if information technology At Don't scrap those PCs yet THREE OTHER PERKS The primary advantages of server-based computing (SBC) are reduced costs, easi- er administration and increased security. But there are other advantages, accord- ing to Christa Anderson, author of "The Definitive Guide to Citrix MetaFrame XP." According to her: SBC helps bring more people into the fold. Many agencies have employees who use non-Microsoft Corp. Windows operating sys- tems on their computers, primarily the Ap- ple Computer Inc. Mac OS or Linux. Those users usually have to move to a Windows machine to access the agency's enterprise applications. SBC automatically extends the would if the applications ran on their PC or a local-area network — by clicking on an icon. That mouse click launches MetaFrarne software on the server, which runs the business application the user wants to access and manages the communications session. To users — even those on a dial- up connection from home — the appli- cation runs about as fast as it would on a LAN-attached PC, LeVerso said. The 12,8-bit encryption Secure Sockets Layer protocol is used to protect commu- nication between the client and server. And because each user's Files are main- tained on the server, the machine the em- ployee happens to be using is irrelevant, as long as it can connect to the applica- tion server via the ImenneL or clilelWUrk. "For years, the goal of IT was to make 30 JULY 1 5,1001 lEctipacw,ft iBRIEFING administrators paid a lot of attention to network resources and required em- ployees to use crdy high-bandwidth lines. But that did not fit the telecom- muting program's "anywhere with any connection" requirements. What did fit the bill was SBC tech- nology that LeVerso had seen demon- strated by Citrix Systems Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. With Citaix MetaFrame now installed in their data center, 300 employees of the Public Buildings Ser- vice's New England region and some users at the other regions can launch ap- plications from anywhere, just as they computing a utility, like switching on a light," LeVerso said. "With this architec- ture, I think we finally did it." New Drivers Don Leda-one, director of Defense De- partment accounts at Santa Cruz, Calif.- basedTarantella Inc., sees two new secu- rity concerns pushing federal agencies to consider SBC. The first is disaster recovery. Users who must evacuate buildings can sim- ply go to PCs in other offices and pick up where they were interrupted. And the decentralized nature of the Internet, applications to all platforms. m SBC delays hardware upgrades. "A hidden cost in any software upgrade is the cost of re- placing all the hardware [that] no longer works well with the new application," Ander- son said. 58C removes hardware considera- tions from any upgrade project. • SBC ensures more efficient use of com- puting resources. For resource-intensive ap- plications, SBC aichitecture can provide more bang for the buck. An application ac- cessed by, say, five people on a server uses less memory and processing power than the total resources for the same application run on five separate PCs, Anderson said. — Larry Stevens built that way to withstand an attack, means the network will always be avail- able. Also, the server, the most vulnera- ble component of SBC, can be protected easily through standard backup practices such as mirroring, which involves creat- ing a replica of the primary system at an- other site. Second, new homeland security pro- cedures require new types of collabora- tion. "Many people are starting to have to work on applications that their agen- cies don't own," Ledu-one said. SBC is an easy way to authorize new users with- out having to load software on their PCs or even take into account the operating system they are using. Another driver is the increased popu- larity of Web portals. "Workers want more consolidated and personalized access to all their applica- dons," Friedlander said. In fact, consolidated access to appli- cations is one reason that officials at the Interior Department's National Business Center (NBC) decided to use Citrix MetaFrame to develop an SBC solution for financial reporting. "We provide a single point of entry to all our applications through aWeb page," said Mike Sciortino, a system manager at NBC. That approach "makes it very easy for our users to configure their workstations and connect to the system." Interior has used MetaFrarne since June 2.000 to provide access to financial repotting software and other applications, including Microsoft Excel and a text ed- itor. About 250 people use the system. Sciortino said that before moving to SBC architecture, Interior had problems with large amounts of data clogging its network. As a result, users suffered with poor performance connections and cor- rupted databases. Now that program files and data files are centrally located on two side-by-side servers, the applications run more smoothly and data corruption does not occur, he said. Another advantage of SBC, according to Sciortino, is that software upgrades are much easier to manage. Before using MetaFrame, NBC would have to install full upgrades on each PC that accessed the system and struggle with the in- evitable compatibility problems. Now software upgrades only have to be in- stalled on the central application server. As soon as users log off and back on, they're working with the latest version. SBC may be the right technology at the right time. Security considerations, new collaboration requirements and bud- getary constraints are forcing agencies to seek new ways to launch and manage applications. SBC, which is finally becoming enterprise-ready, may be one solution to those problems. Stevens is a freelance journalisr who has written abour IT since 1982. FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK Citrbe, home I PS corn s.earch_profiles I back Lehman Brothers Page 1 of 2 CITRIX Case In September 11th Aftermath f Citrix® MetaFrame® Helps Lehman Brothers Keep Trading Solution Overview Key Benefits • Business continuity following a major disaster • Simple, secure application access over the Internet • Fast, centralized deployment of 81 applications • Rapid system scalability • Improved user productivity and satisfaction Applications Deployed Over 81 applications, including: • Fixed Income trade settlement • PeopleSoft HR module • Microsoft® Office suite • Real-Time Market Data Application • Trading Applications Networking Environment Cltrix® MetFrame® software running on 30 Compaq Proliant servers, 400 Mhz Quad Processors, 4GB RAM • Citrix NFuse® Classic software Microsoft®WIndows® 2000 Lehman Brothers, a global investment bank providing research, advisory, distribution, trading and financial services, was among the many firms tragically impacted by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. As a result of the attack, Lehman's headquarters in the World Financial Center was damaged, causing the displacement of nearly 6,000 employees to more than 20 different locations in the New York and New Jersey area. The Challenge: Secure Access to Applications in the Wake of Disaster With its New York headquarters staff operating from several locations, Lehman Brothers' IT department faced the critically important task of providing these employees with remote access to business applications so they could resume work as quickly as possible. In addition, Lehman needed to re-establish connectivity with major clients that had accessed mainframe applications over leased lines. "With so many different locations, we assumed the lowest common denominator for access - a Web browser," said Hari Gopalkrishnan, vice president of e-commerce technology for Lehman. "Our key concerns were application rollout speed and security over the Net, since we would be deploying highly sensitive financial information to any arbitrary kiosk." Scaling CitrixC) MetaFramee: From 25 to 4,500 Users in Six Weeks Prior to the attack, Lehman Brothers was piloting Citrix MetaFrame in New Jersey to deploy several applications to remote users. Citrix NFuse® Classic application portal software enabled Lehman to Web-enable these applications for browser-based delivery. For Internet security without the complexity of a Virtual Private Network, Lehman developed proprietary software called Tocket that provides 128-bit encryption of applications. "Tocket enables MetaFrame to work securely in a standard Web environment," said Gopalkrishnan, who created it. "In addition to SSL support, Tocket allows access across client firewalls or proxy servers without configuration changes." http://www.citrix.comlpress/news/profiles/lehman_bros.htm 10/24/02 • Servers • Switched 100 Based-T LAN Environment • A variety of clients including Compaq and Dell Workstations About Citrix MetaFrame Citrix@ MetaFrame® application server software is enabling organizations to extend the virtual workplace everywhere by providing secure, reliable access to applications and Information on any device or network connection from any location. MetaFrame extends the functionality of Microsoft® Windows@ 2000 Servers and Windows NT@ Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition, as well as UNIX@ Operating Systems. It provides enterprise management and Web-enablement of applications via Citrix NFuse® Classic software, and flexible access to applications via the full Net - LANs, WANs, Internet, intranets and extranets. Lehman Brothers • Page 2 of 2 Gopalkrishnan recognized that Citrix MetaFrame with NFuse Classic software and Tocket offered a solution for simple, secure application deployment to the displaced workers. His team quickly scaled the pilot to 40 MetaFrame servers in two farms, while prioritizing employee access and certifying applications for the Citrix environment. "In two days, we had 1,200 users on the system. In just six weeks, 4,500 were connected and 81 applications had been roiled out," he said. Technology Investment Pays off in Business Continuity By leveraging Citrix and Tocket immediately after the attack, Lehman not only continued operating, but also increased its market share among its different businesses. User satisfaction was high, with employees rating the performance, functionality and availability of the Citrix solution as "excellent to very good." In addition, Lehman's clients were even able to access a fixed income trade settlement application using Citrix software and the Tocket system. Citrix subsequently collaborated with Lehman to develop Citrix Secure Gateway, a security solution similar to Tocket. "With the success of this solution, we expect to see much wider use of MetaFrame and Tocket at Lehman Brothers," commented Gopaikrishnan. "MetaFrame grew from a remote access solution for a few employees to a key component of Lehman's enterprise infrastructure. By proving its scalability, performance and flexibility under extraordinary circumstances, MetaFrame became an integral part of our IT strategy going forward." 2002 Citrix Systems, Inc, . All rights reserved. Citrix®, MetaFrame, and NFuse® are registered trademarks or trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Microsoft®, Windows®, and Windows NTO are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. UNIX® is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. http://www.citrix.com/press/news/profiles/lehman_bros.htm 10/24/02 Jersey Public Services Departrrient Page 1 of Citrix home I pressroom I search profiles I back Solution Overview Key Benefits • Cost-savings to meet budget cuts • Time-savings on IT maintenance and support • Centralised application deployment for 3,000 users • A stable Infrastructure for e- business Applications Deployed Over 12 applications, Including: • Microsoft® Office 2000 • Microsoft Exchange 2000 • In-house asset management applications Network Environment • Citrix® MetaFrame® software running on 4 servers: 2 Compaq Proliant 3000s, dual PIII, 600 MHz processors, 1 GB RAM; 2 Compaq Prollant DL580s, PIII, 700 MHz Xeon processors, 2 GB RAM • Citrix Load Balancing Services • , CiTRIX3 Case :)Ti The Jersey Public Services Department Cleans Up with Citrix® MetaFrame® Jersey is a picturesque island situated in the English Channel with over 85,000 residents. The island has its own government called the States of Jersey and its own system of local administration. Its Public Services Department (PSD) is responsible for waste management, traffic and transportation, municipal services and water resources. The Challenge: Cutting IT Costs to Fulfill Anti-Inflationary Budgets The States of Jersey have an anti-inflationary policy, which means that government departments need to cut budgets by one percent every year. The PSD was finding it difficult to meet these requirements. Relying on a traditional client/server network, the IT staff worked hard for two and a half weeks to implement updates of applications, but with six different sites around the island, it was becoming increasingly difficult to coordinate the process. The main States of Jersey institution also needed a scalable and reliable IT infrastructure on which to build online services, in order to comply with regulations stipulated by the government. Implementing Citrix® MetaFrame® Application Server Software After a successful pilot, the PSD implemented Citrix MetaFrame application server software and Microsoft Windows 2000 Servers. ICL, a Gold-level member of the Citrix Solutions Network", helped the PSD with the implementation. Now, all 250 employees at the PSD can access office productivity applications, as well as an asset management application, from central servers by logging on to a MetaFrame session. The organisation also takes advantage of Citrix Load Balancing Services so that they can achieve maximum system uptime and reliability, The Low-Cost Solution Keeps Public Spending at a Minimum "In a climate of strict controls on the number of personnel employed by the department and anti-inflationary budget cuts, staff time is a premium," said Alexsis Pimley-Smith, Head of IT, Public Services Department. "Citrix MetaFrame has allowed us to reduce our support costs dramatically and to extend the life cycles of our existing httb://www.citrix.com/bress/news/brofiles/jersey.htm 10/30/2002 • Microsoft Windows® 2000 Servers • Client devices Include Compaq T1010s, Compaq and Dell desktop PCs • 100 MB Fibre Ethernet WAN About MetaFrame: atrix® MetaFrame® application server software is enabling organizations to extend the virtual workplace everywhere by providing secure, reliable access to applications and information on any device or network connection from any location. MetaFrame extends the functionality of Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Servers and Windows NTS Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition, as well as UNIX® Operating Systems. It provides enterprise management and Web-enablement of applications via Citrix NFusem, and flexible access to applications via the full Net - LANs, WANs, Internet, intranets and extranets. . Page 2 of 1 Jersey Public Services Department hardware." Since all the IT -administration takes place at a central server farm, application updates can be applied faster and more consistently, The IT staff at the PSD no longer travels around the island to support employees. Using MetaFrame's Session Shadowing feature, this can be accomplished from one location, by taking control over a user's session remotely. "Previously, our IT staff had to spend all their time maintaining the system and travelling to support users," commented Pimley-Smith. "Now they can concentrate on providing, planning and managing solutions to achieve business goals." The MetaFrame implementation at the PSD was so successful that the States of Jersey decided to extend the solution across the wider organisation. "For public organisations, it is very important to implement the most cost-effective IT system possible," explained Pimley-Smith. "Looking at the benefits that Citrix solutions have brought us, the States of Jersey has decided to rollout the implementation to their 3,000 employees as well." Future Plans Citrix MetaFrame plays a key part in the foundation for the States of Jersey's plans to establish an infrastructure that will enable e- government, which will mean collaborative working with the government and citizens. The States of Jersey want to be able to deliver services electronically and it will be able to achieve this using the infrastructure that it has built with Cltrix MetaFrame. Concluded Pimley-Smith, "The MetaFrame implementation provides a secure platform for e-commerce with the State's business partners, thus helping to strengthen Jersey's position as a leading business and financial centre." © 2002 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix®, MetaFrame,® Citrix Solutions NetworkTM and NFuseTmare registered trademarks or trademarks of Cltrix Systems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Microsoft®, Windows® and Windows NT® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. UNIX® is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. http://www.citrix.cordpress/news/profiles/jersey.litm 10/30/2002 0: Most infrastructure projects are on hold right now. Is it time to reconsider thin-client computing for its economic benefits? A: We're seeing a big interest, This is the way to deploy Windows 2000 without touching the PCs. Technically, there is no reason not to run all applications that way. One thing that people usually miss is they don't think about the remote offices and how they're going to be able to eliminate the infrastructure out there. CI: What's the most common operational mistake made when implementing a thin-client system? COMPUTER WORLD Home News Topics Departments Services Subscriptions Events You may retrieve this story by entering Quickunk4 26630 ..11eturn to story Thin Clients for Tough Times By ROBERT L. MITCHELL FEBRUARY 04, 2002 Steve Kaplan is a vice president and general manager at Houston-based Citrix reseller Vector ESP Inc. and is co-author of Citrix MetaFrame for Windows Terminal Services: The Official Guide (McGraw Hill, 2000). He's also a member of the Microsoft Advisory Council. Q: What problems can a thin-client system solve — and not solve? A: It eliminates the need for the perpetual PC upgrade cycle. It eliminates the requirements for remote servers and remote networking infrastructure. It slashes administration costs, management and maintenance costs. Those are the hard.economic benefits. But if you have users who are truly road warriors who need to run in disconnected mode today, this won't solve that. If you have [computer-aided design] engineers, desktop publishing people, software developers, this is not an appropriate environment. 0: What recent developments in thin-client technology make it more compelling for corporate use? A: Windows 2000 has become a lot more stable, And now that Terminal Services is part of Windows 2000, applications have to run in Terminal Services in order to be certified. You get more users on a server as well. You can get thousands of users In just one [server] rack. Citrix [MetaFrame] XP adds a lot of features to make it an enterprise solution. With server farm fail- over capabilities, you can use a disaster recovery site so that if the data center fails, all your remote offices immediately fail over to the hot site and corporate users can log in through the Internet. A The most common by far is underestimating the environmental changes you're going to do. It's similar to putting a mainframe in. To be successful, you need to have the disciplines in place that made the mainframe successful. Cl: What's the most common mistake made when assessing the business benefits of thin- client computing? A: Putting in this infrastructure but then only using it for a couple of applications. If you' re going to do it, do it for the whole desktop. Sure, you can make exceptions, but for the most part, go thin client everywhere. Ci: What are the technical obstaclea to deploying thin-client systems? A: It's all application-based, so you have to make sure your applications are going to play well together. Citrix is a lightning rod for any problems in your infrastructure. If you have a bad router that's resetting every few hours, it will kill a thin-client environment. And it's the thin-client system that gets blamed. How big a problem are connection and data center failures? Slava Kaplan of aids resaller Vector ESP Inc. A: If you're on a frame cloud, you could have [Digital Subscriber Line] as a backup. If that doesn't work, you can use dial-up. So you can have triple redundancy. If the data center is built well, the odds of a data center going down are dramatically reduced, In addition, you can set up a hot site so your remote offices are still up and running [if the data center goes down]. Q: What is Ditrix Systems' biggest strength? Weakness? A: Citrix created the multiuser Windows industry, and they continue to lead it. The product's biggest weakness under MetaFrame XP is that because XP has its own database, it's subject to database corruption. Q: What's holding back wider adoption of thin -client computing in large companies? A: I think it's people who rise up through IT decision-making because of an ability to manage perceived risk. And the most scary thing to a CIO is thousands of users screaming at them. Its fear. It's job security. Source: Compulenvorld Sponsored Links VeriSign Get 128 Bit SSL Encryption! Oracle Too many servers? Download a free Oracle Server Consolidation InfoKit. Free AMD T-Shirt Too Much Data? Attend Storage Networking World, Oct 27-30, 2002, Orlando, Florida! About Us Contacts Editorial Calendar Help Desk Advertise Privacy Policy Copyright ICI 2002 Computehvond Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part In any form or medium without expresswritten permission of Computerworld Inc. Is prohibited. Computenvorld and Computenvorld.com and the resoective logos are trademarks of International Data Group Inc, Achieving E 2 Government Using Technology to Help U.S. Government Agencies Gain Efficiency and Effectiveness An IDC White Paper Sponsored by Citrix Systems Inc. Analysts: Jocelyn Young, Program Manager, Government Sector Research, and Dan Kusnetzky, Vice President, System Software Research INTRODUCTION Federal, state, and local government agencies face increasing pressures that challenge the fundamentals of how government operates. Pressing issues such as national security, a retiring government workforce, growing budget cuts, and the need to bridge "silos" of information within a complex bureaucracy are forcing government agencies to reevaluate how they can achieve better efficiency and effectiveness. Broadly speaking, the challenge for government agencies is striking a balance between their internal and external-facing operations. In government, "efficiency" translates to a need to improve internal workflow, management, and processes — usually through reducing redundancies and seeking ways to streamline processes. "Effectiveness" builds upon these internal processes, enabling an agency to fulfill its mission. After all, at the end of the day, government agencies must be able to fulfill their mandates of public service — no matter what mission the agency serves. Since its inception, the concept of "egovernment" has largely focused on setting up government agency Web sites and allowing citizens to interact with a government agency via an elec- tronic interface. Taking egovernment to the next level means that government agencies need to have the internal back-office systems and processes in place to deliver on the external-facing promise. Whether providing the nation with health and human services or maintaining a state highway system, government agencies face a set of pain points unique to the public sector. How can we work within our existing structural constraints and with limited resources yet still deliver higher-quality service to citizens and government employees alike? What is the most effective way to protect the critical infrastructure, resources, and intellectual capital of the nation? And how can we better make use of the information we handle on a daily basis — whether in our own operations or in more effectively serving the public? In addressing these pain points, government agencies grapple with the unique nature of the government sector a complex bureaucracy that presents challenges such as a geographically dispersed workforce, the requirement to *protect critical IT infrastructure, and a mandate to implement Homeland Security initiatives. The solution to many of these challenges lies in the deployment of the right information technology (IT). Unfortunately, all too often, IT itself becomes the hurdle to readily addressing business problems, specifically when it comes to the management of a distributed computing environment. As government agencies continue to invest in IT, new challenges of managing an increasingly complex IT infrastructure arise. Technology that enables a virtual workplace can help address challenges that government agencies face, including managing a distributed computing environment in the context of tightening fiscal and human resources. At the same time, virtual workplace technology can minimize the management burdens associated with increasingly complex IT environments. A virtual workplace environment provides more scalability, reliability, and power than is possible using a standalone system approach. This IDC white paper examines the dynamics of the government sector and how challenges that government officials face can often be solved by applying technology — specifically, virtual workplace solutions. Specifically, the white paper: • Identifies the current pain points and challenges that U.S. government agencies are facing • Introduces a computing concept, called the virtual environment model, and discusses how this model can address the key challenges facing government agencies • Introduces Citrix Systems, a company that develops and markets solutions that enable the virtual workplace • Provides recommendations on how government agencies can benefit by using virtual workplace solutions • Shows how two state and national government agencies, The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center and the Mississippi Department of Transportation, are using Citrix virtual workplace solutions to gain efficiency and effectiveness OPERATING WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT SECTOR Agencies at all levels of government are experiencing unprecedented challenges. Driven by a number of national economic and political factors, government agencies are under increasing pressure to function more like commercial entities. At the heart of these challenges is the premise that government, as a whole, needs to change the way it operates. Citizens are demanding more options for self-service — the ability to apply for a driver's license renewal, for Copyright C 2002 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden. Printed on recycled External Publication of IDC Information and Data — Any IDC information that is to be used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials materials requires prior written approval from the appropriate IOC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any such request. IOC reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason. Achieving E2 Government — 2 — IDC example, over the Internet without having to stand in line at the local Department of Motor Vehicles. In addition, citizens are demanding less redundancy in paperwork — in an ideal world, an address change that citizens file online should propagate throughout relevant systems such as vehicle registration, driver's license, and postal address, regardless of which department or agency houses the datacenter or hosts the application. The underlying premise that government needs to change how it operates demands addressing internal inefficiencies and redundancies. In the context of recent U.S. and world events, the mandate for government agencies to operate more efficiently has taken on even greater urgency. CHALLENGES OF LEVERAGING IT IN GOVERNMENT Government agencies are subject to different pressures than private industry. In the government world, "shareholder" translates to broader concepts of "stakeholder" and "constituent." At the same time, government agencies are facing many of the same pressures as companies in the private sector. The key challenge for government agencies is to more effectively manage internal operations to enable and maximize their external mission — whether serving the population of a small city or the entire nation. Categorically, government agencies leverage IT in four broad functional areas: information sharing and access, critical infrastructure protection and security, administrative operations, and resources. Information sharing and access. Government agencies come into contact with huge volumes of information on a daily basis. This 'information may be internal to the agency (e.g., employee benefits information), or it may be of value outside the agency for appropriate action (e.g., a list of parole violators in a city). Information can be used to enhance both the productivity and effectiveness of government agencies. Police officers may need access to a data- base of suspected criminals while in the patrol car to make an immediate, positive identification. Building inspectors can save valuable time by filling out required forms while onsite rather than waiting until they are back in the office. And government employees working from home may need to access the same information they are able to access from the office. This latter example of providing. remote access, where appropriate, to enable telecommuting among certain types of government employees will become more common- place as more agencies provide telecommuting options. Yet the mismanagement, or inappropriate access, of this same infor- mation can contribute to serious security breaches or exposure points. Federal, state, and local government agencies alike have focused on the need for increased information sharing and access within and among other agencies. How agencies share and access information varies dramatically depending on the type of agency. For example, agencies that handle highly sensitive information, such as a local police department, are more focused on the role of information access on an as-needed basis. The key challenge for government agencies is deciphering best practices of data ownership: Who has this informa- - 3 — Achieving E2 Government bon? Who needs it? Who should have it, and what should they be able to do with it? At a tactical level, implementing these best practices is accompanied by the technical challenges of not only deploying and supporting appropriate applications but also controiling access. Critical infrastructure protection and security. At all levels of government, issues of business continuity and the protection of critical IT infrastructure are paramount. Government agencies have the dual burden of protecting the IT infrastructure that supports their internal operations and the IT infrastructure that supports their mission. Concern about security is not limited to agencies in law enforcement, public safety, or national defense. The issue of security takes on several layers of meaning for government agencies. Security as it relates to an agency's IT infrastructure means that transmission of information must be secure, access to information must be controlled, and sensitive information must be accessible to different audiences at different times and for different purposes. Government agencies have to be extremely prudent about how data and information are accessed, stored, archived, and retrieved, especially where electronic transactions are involved. As a result, ensuring the protection of centrally located datacenters, servers, desktop computers, and networks is a key challenge. Maintaining a disparate workforce and protecting the critical IT infra- structure places enormous strains on an already limited IT resource pool. And ensuring secure access to agency information poses numerous challenges, such as intrusion detection and protection, user authentication, and data encryption. Could information on an employee's desktop be exposed to unauthorized access once the employee is away from his or her desk? How vulnerable are online transactions with an agency to hacking? The need for increased security at all levels of an agency's IT infrastructure will continue to grow as the incidence and nature of security breaches become more sophisticated. Internal operations. Federal, state, and local government agencies are tasked with offering services to their stakeholders more efficiently. The federal government is trying to increase the percentage of electronic tax filing to reduce errors and increase the efficiency of the process. And state governments are implementing enterprise tech- nologies that have been applied in the private sector, such as CRM (often termed "citizen relationship management" in the government) to provide self-service capabilities. In many cases, these types of solutions aim not only to improve levels of service to stakeholders but also to reduce the amount of human interaction required compared with a manual process. At the same time, being able to deliver these types of services requires agencies to have a robust back-office environment in place to generate the internal efficiencies needed to deliver external services. In addition to external-facing enterprise technologies, such as CRM, government agencies also are turning to internal-facing applications, including enterprise resource management (ERM). Automating functions such as human resources, payroll, and benefits helps agencies generate the internal operational efficiencies they need to deliver on external-facing services. Achieving '0 Government — 4 — Fa-, ID C The deployment and ongoing management of administrative systems can be a challenge for government agencies with scarce IT resources. Obstacles impeding deployment, support, and ongoing management for both mission-critical and administrative systems are especially daunting for agencies that span multiple locations. And more often than not, agencies need to evaluate the feasibility of making major infrastructure upgrades to support these enterprise applications, particularly agencies that have been using a variety of systems they have developed internally. Extending resources: doing more with less. As with any initia- tive, generating efficiencies and improving effectiveness requires both financial and human resources. Without the availability and commitment of these resources, it is difficult — if not impossible — to effect change. Limited budgets and personnel constraints have long plagued government agencies. Moreover, during the past year, many state and local agencies have had to divert allocated funds to carry out Homeland Security efforts, creating significant budget gaps at the state and local levels. At the federal government level, there is more visible concern about deriving value from existing investments and justifying new investments with a quantifiable measure of return on investment (ROI). Government agencies at all levels are facing challenges in attracting and retaining qualified IT professionals. As agencies struggle to address the effects of a retiring workforce, the pressure to "do more with less" will continue. TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION IN THE GOVERNMENT SECTOR Government agencies are increasingly turning to technology for help. In particular, collaborative technologies and knowledge management take high priority for government agencies as they seek to bridge silos of information within and among agencies. IDC -survey data shows that other top priorities for technology spending include system infrastructure software, government-specific solutions, business intelligence, and enterprise applications such as CRM, supply chain management (SCM), and enterprise resource management (ERM) (see Figure 1). In 2001, U.S. government agencies spent approximately $29.4 billion on external technology, including hardware, software,. and IT services. 1DC forecasts that this spending will reach $44.3 billion by 2006, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.5%. To date, government agencies have made the largest investment in IT services, including consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing, training, and support. IDC expects that government agencies will continue to make investments in software and IT services at a similarly healthy rate, demonstrating a CAGR of 11% for each. A growing number of government agencies are using middleware and serverware software to manage their increasingly complex IT infrastructures. In 2001, the North American government sector – 5 – Achieving E2 Government •- • • rw0 Reven..t.w,••••, • 1,s• -,. seeu L71.14.7••!•-• . r, • • -;•.,••,-1,•:••• 1-- I 'kink and 14'04 .7, acia armies, am...7•7; •*; • - tecta. Arty,, . - • GOAI'417,1111Te a 94: ' q•""t " ,J " •.. spre,.. q - art -f t, nves mea Prrortttes — government ectar2002'' 2c1 44youraganizatIar1invesnfnanyjofth&äiawIag7techuoIagy areaePrea§einckicrealt ,?- 17' 4,n0 •••• rt— „ , 5,3-:%Spend/l*SUGikqSititernag.Sper10790KMeppfeariCATaCigtigs'nckexterhatpendifIgicn venclor ty.f . - - • ,-. • . . . 11, hanutivprevairwa • .2afidt4e M-,r5. 51- 1, 5;1 1, . • : .0 P. ,,r -• r- . . • . :4% " I 1*%-'3 : Ir.1,• -'' '' ; -,,,,.&,,.,', -A;p,n, . -2,/,,,,!;,..,?k;_wsgiA I I I 1 1 1 In Ti; . • . •• - ,. ,, — , I ' 4.: , 1;ote.04•.•,.:„..„ : , ., __ . 1 1 . . IRatiiP,f1' pe i: -c I • MINIMMMEMMMIll Business• intelligence Collaborative technologies and knowledge management Industry specific Customer relationship management/front office Enterprise resource management/back office n (weighted) = 36 Source: IDC's 2001 Enterprise Technology Trends Survey ral S., ... f . 1 ri1. ' ,. n ; tY .I. ".. .'-. V — 6 -- Achieving E2 Government :.711DC gur °I` o :t4` t 3 qtua anitentt „M'actett''4, Jra".4, - it+gt.to, • , r V,AU r 4:4 Telecommuters Headquarters Mobile Workers spent $353 million on this type of software. This figure is expected to increase to $577 million by 2005, representing a 13% CAGR. Figure 2 illustrates this growth. Emergence of the IDC Virtual Environment Model Organizations are increasingly creating virtual environments for their critical applications in an effort to harness technology to build world-class institutions. Workers are no longer tied to one location or computing environment. This increased mobility, coupled with the proliferation of computing devices, makes it necessary to extend the workplace beyond traditional boundaries. The virtual environment is built by adding intelligence to a function and to system services, thereby extending performance, scalability, availability, and manageability capabilities. The virtual environment is made possible by three categories of software — virtual access software (VAS), virtual processing software (VPS), and virtual storage software (VSS). VAS consists of virtual user interface (VUI) software and portal software. This software creates a user interface that is virtualized for distribution to a nonnative environment. VPS consists of parallel processing, load balancing, and clustering software. VSS consists of distributed file system, storage replication, and storage failover software (see Figure 3). Access any application on any device from any location in the Virtual Environment Model Source:1DC, 2002 Achieving E2 Government — 7 — MIDC Client hardware (10-12%) Administration, operations, support, training, etc. (50-70%) 'rota Other (3-5%) Network (5-7%) Application (8-10%) Server hardware (12-15%) Source: IOC, 2002 INTRODUCING CITRIX SYSTEMS• FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTING IT SOLUTIONS lDC has conducted many total cost of ownership (TOO) studies that shed light on how technology costs vary depending on the com- puting model an organization adopts. This research includes a focus on the cost savings associated with the adoption of a virtual environ- ment model. These studies are based on interviews and surveys to determine actual ownership costs associated with purchasing and supporting hardware, software, networking, and services as well as costs associated with the retirement of systems. The research is not dependent upon theoretical modeling and questionable cost factors. When the findings of these studies are combined, it is clear that hardware and software are not the leading costs involved. As Figure 4 shows, staffing costs, such as administration, opera- tions, development, support and maintenance, software installation and updates, and training significantly outweigh the costs of hardware and software acquisition combined. Organizations may be able to save millions of dollars using technology to more effectively manage staff-related costs. Citrix Systems Inc. is a leading software and services provider in the area of virtual access and virtual processing. Its application infra- structure software products provide secure access to applications, information, processes, and people on an array of access point devices and over nearly all major networking technologies. Citrix was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Citrix employs approximately 1,700 people in 22 countries worldwide. The company markets its products through a well-established indirect channel comprising more than 6,000 resellers, integrators, technology alliance partners, and consultants. Citrix products are available in more than 60 countries, and approximately half of the company's revenue is generated outside the United States. Citrix had Achieving E2 Government — 8 — I D C net revenue of $591.6 million in fiscal 2001, which, according to published IDC research, establishes Citrix as the 19th largest system infrastructure software vendor in the world based on reported 2001 calendar-year revenue. In what IDO refers to as the VUI software market, which forms a key part of VAS, Citrix is far and away the market leader with more than three-quarters of the total market share. Citrix is publicly traded and has been listed on Standard & Poor's 500 Index since 1999. More than 120,000 organizations comprise its customer base, including the majority of the Fortune 500 in the United States and the Financial Times FT 500 in Europe. Citrix Products Citrix offers application infrastructure software products and solutions that provide a flexible foundation for building what the company refers to as the virtual workplace. From a product perspective, this virtual workplace portfolio is composed of application server software that centralizes the processing of all applications onto servers running in a central datacenter. The company's flagship products, MetaFrame XP "I and MetaFrame for UNIX®, provide an application access, deployment, and management platform for delivery of Windows® and UNIXO-based client/server applications. To assist companies in the process of expanding their application portfolios to include Web-based application access, Citrix provides a family of access portal products. NFusee Classic and NFuse® Elite leverage the core strengths of the company's application server product while also providing browser-based application access to end users from virtually any wired or wireless client device. Rounding out the Citrix product set is a robust security architecture, highlighted by an SSL gateway capability referred to as the Citrix Secure Gateway, which encrypts all MetaFrame-based application data using 128-bit SSL encryption. The combination of these products and features gives manufacturers and other organizations alike the power to build their own secure virtual workplace infrastructures. CHALLENGES OF THE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT MODEL Virtual environment solutions have been widely adopted by the mainstream, but Citrix and others addressing the government sector with these solutions are faced with two basic end-user issues that technology adopters are advised to keep in mind. Specifically, the virtual environment model requires an always-on network connection so users can access applications and files from the server. In a few scenarios, such as working on an airplane, users may need a stand- alone mobile PC that should be synchronized with server-based files. From an IT perspective, Citrix has traditionally focused on enhancing the Windows platform, which is used in the vast majority of organiza- tions. Citrix also supports HP-UX, IBM AIX, and the Sun Solaris plat- forms and provides technology for instantly Web-enabling Windows and UNIX applications for use within a Web portal. Some organiza- tions run other platforms, such as OS/390 or OS/400, that Citrix does — 9 — Achieving E2 Government not natively support; however, they can simply host a terminal emulation product on one of the Citrix servers, thus allowing virtual access to that platform. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS Unprecedented pressures are forcing government agencies to reevaluate every aspect of their organizations and operations. One key consideration revolves around how to reduce internal redundan- cies and optimize workflow processes to become more efficient and effective. DC recommends that local, state, and national govern- ment agencies address all the major functions that are integral to their IT service delivery models. To reiterate, the four primary functions are information sharing and access, critical infrastructure protection and security, administrative operations, and resources — both financial and human. Usually, organizations cannot find a single "silver bullet" that will lower the overall cost of back-office functions. Instead, organizations typically find savings in several areas, which, when totaled, result in significant cost reductions. IDC recommends that organizations con- sider ways to lower their costs of system administration, operations, support, and software and hardware installations and seek ways to reduce the churn required by updating and upgrading client systems every 12 to 18 months. Much of these incremental savings can be achieved by centralizing productivity applications from running on highly distributed PCs at each employee's desk onto workgroup, divisional, or business unit application server clusters. Once applications are being provided by centralized application services, desktop PCs can be used as "access point devices" rather than as general-purpose PCs. Access point processing requires less processing power, memory, and storage than general-purpose com- puting. Therefore, organizations would no longer find it necessary to upgrade these distributed devices on the same 18-month schedule. Utilizing the same systems for a longer period of time would allow organizations to reduce the costs associated with PC hardware, PC software, software installation and upgrades, and so forth. After analyzing the challenges, government information officers will realize that having a virtual environment is a viable and attractive strategy for obtaining maximum operational and financial efficien- cies. And as government agencies reach this conclusion, it is crucial that they partner with a technology provider that has experience serving government clients and a proven track record in delivering results. Technology providers such as Citrix have proven this ability and have earned the trust of government agencies, including The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center and the Mississippi Department of Transportation. This trust is derived from the capabilities a Citrix virtual workplace provides these two government agencies to manage critical government agency functions through the implementation of a virtual environment. Achieving E2 Government — 10 — WIDC I . CASE STUDY: THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH CLINICAL CENTER IMPROVES USER EXPERIENCE THROUGH CITRIX SOLUTIONS The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center is a clinical research hospital, one of the 25 organizations that make up the NIH. N1H is one of the eight agencies that comprise the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH has appropriated nearly $23.4 billion for 2002, compared with a total of about $300 in 1887. The NIH Clinical Center admits about 7,000 inpatients per year; another 72,000 participate in studies as outpatients. Scope and Goals N11-1 Clinical Center faced the challenge of providing seamless serv- ices to its users. As a provider of clinical services and clinical research, NIH Clinical Center works with a heterogeneous mix of workstations and remote access methods. Workstations range from Windows-based systems to Macintosh and multiple flavors of Unix. Users of these systems are dispersed geographically and need to access these systems from any number of remote locations, such as from another location on campus or from home. Access methods include onsite, wireless, and remote access. This broad mix of workstations and access methodologies and the large number of client/server applications written for specific workstation configura- tions meant that NIH Clinical Center had few choices when deciding how it could more effectively provide seamless services to its users. NIH Clinical Center embarked on a decision-making process that evaluated purchasing multiple workstations for every desk or moving to a thin-client computing environment. As part of the evaluation process, it conducted a thorough analysis that considered the business processes, costs of acquiring and maintaining technology, and the resources needed to support these efforts. One of the key challenges that N1H Clinical Center sought to address was the fact that its expansive portfolio of applications required it to continually purchase leading-edge systems for every location where a user may come into contact with technology — a time- and resource- intensive proposition. NIH Clinical Center was also keenly interested to provide services to its staff from remote sites, such as a home office. Moreover, NIH Clinical Center staff and employees work on a variety of workstations, some of which are several years old. In the end, NIH Clinical Center pursued a thin-client option, which would allow it to provide all the necessary capabilities without the increased costs. Solution Overview In conjunction with partners, NIH Clinical Center has implemented or is continuing to implement a suite of Citrix products, including Citrix MetaFrame XP, NFuse Classic, and NFuse Elite. Its current solution includes a suite of approximately 35 Citrix servers supporting 1,500 concurrent user sessions. The solution includes the ability to publish an unlimited number of applications for users. More important, the solution also includes the ability to publish access to an entire Windows 2000 desktop. – 11 — Achieving E2 Government Implementation was conducted in multiple phases. NH Clinical Center started with a small, 50-user system, then upgraded to a 500-user system. Its most recent implementation supports 1,500 users. The user population comes from virtually every function within the hospital and includes some partner organizations at the NIH. Key Business Benefits The Citrix solution has helped NIH Clinical Center achieve the original objective it set out to accomplish: providing its users with a more seamless computing experience. More users are able to telecommute from home, and the customer satisfaction ratings of the IT department have risen dramatically. In fact, the success of the Citrix solution deployment has helped NIH Clinical Center focus its efforts on more business-driven discussions (such as best practices around instant messaging applications) instead of more tedious tasks such as responding to help desk tickets that result from users improperly configuring applications on their desktops. Looking Forward NIH Clinical Center's long-term goal is to use its Citrix solution to begin the transition from traditional client/server computing to a complete Web environment, Summary Business Benefits • Reliable, predictable, robust application access • An ability to provide any user access to appropriate applications at every technology access point • A predictable model of support cost Applications Deployed NIH Clinical Center deployed 40-50 key clinical and administrative applications. CASE STUDY: CITRIX SOLUTIONS HELP THE MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION IMPROVE APPLICATION PERFORMANCE AND EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) is responsible for providing a safe intermodal transportation network that is planned, designed, constructed, and maintained in an effective, cost-efficient, and environmentally sensitive manner. Scope and Goals MOOT uses a financial management software package to manage all financial aspects of the agency, including accounts receivable, cost allocation, budget, travel, asset management, purchasing, and Achieving E2 Government — 12 — IDC * 4 1 time and attendance, to name a few. Nearly 1,000 employees across 40-50 locations statewide use the system — in particular, the time and attendance application. These employees are dispersed across a wide geographical region, from the Gulf Coast in the south to those located near Memphis, Tennessee, in the north. With the client/ server architecture of the financial management software, MOOT faced significant challenges. Its primary challenge was one of performance. Due to the size of the client application and network traffic, sometimes it took up to 10 minutes to complete one employee timesheet in the system or five minutes to look up a vendor number, Requirements for installing software patches or application upgrades created a logistical nightmare for the information systems (IS) staff. Serving a large number of disparate locations and a sizable user base placed severe strains on the agency. The IT staff distributing the software upgrades and users of the software were impacted because the software could not be used without patches and upgrades. Solution Overview After a bid and procurement process that lasted about six months, MOOT implemented Citrix MetaFrame software with Citrix NFuse Classic software. With the Citrix solution in place, the agency was able to deploy administrative applications (e.g., its financial manage- ment software) in addition to business applications (e.g., its internally developed Transportation Management Information System [TM1S1 and Contract Administration Tracking System [CATS1). The Citrix solution allows employees to look up and enter information, such as timesheets, more quickly and more efficiently than before. The strains placed on IT resources for software deployment and application management have been greatly reduced. Key Business Benefits The primary benefit that MOOT has gained from implementing Citrix is increased performance of its financial management software application. Previously, it took 10 minutes for a data entry operator to complete the each employee's timesheet. Now, employees input their own information directly, in one to two minutes. In the end, employees see the benefits, especially being able to generate reports or order office supplies more quickly. Employees can also access the system from a remote location. In addition to telecommuters, the agency has other geographically dispersed workers, such as on-call support staff and a field force. These workers can now use either dial-up connections or network connec- tions to access the applications, just as they would from the office. — 13 — Achieving E2 Government =UDC I t a Looking Forward MDOT is considering several options for future development that were made possible by its Citrix solution. For example, it may offer external agencies (particularly federal agencies with similar func- tions, including, potentially, the Federal Highway Administration) access to selected applications such as the financial management system and TMIS. Overall, the Citrix solution allows the agency to extend its functionality significantly without tying in the burdens of software distribution. Summary Business Benefits • Improved application performance, speed, and convenience for users within existing IT infrastructure • Secure remote access to critical applications • Significantly reduced pressures on IT resources for software distribution and application management; reduced management costs and efforts • Improved employee productivity Applications Deployed • Performance Series (financial management system) • Contract Administration Tracking System (CATS) • Transportation Management Information System (TMIS) • Intergraph Geomedia • Cardiff TELEform Enterprise • Cast Application Mining Suite Achieving E2 Government — 14 — OIDC r IDC WorLdwide CO RPORATE EAfia OARTER .- Offices CENTRAL A-1,1D -EASTERN EUROPE* . . : CC is the foremost global Market intelligence. and.aciVitory..ftrm helping dients.gain insight into technology and ebtisinesi. trends to 'develop :Sound: business . strategies.. 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Legaspi Streets Legaspl Wage, Makati City Philippines 1200 632. 867.2288 IDC Taiwan Ltd. 10F, 31 Jen-Ai Road, Sec. 4 Taipei 106 Taiwan, R.O.C. 886.2.2731.7288 IDC Thailand 27 AR building Soi Charoen Nakom 14, Charoen Nakom Rd., Klongtansai Kongsan, Bangkok 10600 Thailand 66.02.439.4591.2 113C Vietnam Saigon Trade Centre 37 Ton Duo Thong Street Unit 1606, District-1 Hochirninh City, Vietnam 84.8.910.1233; 5 . , i • Resolution #03138 June 12,2003 The Chairperson referred the resolution to the Finance Committee. There were no ojections. 0 July 17, 2003 FISCAL NOTE (MISC. 403138) BY: FINANCE COMMITTEE, CHUCK MOSS, CHAIRPERSON IN RE: DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - THIN CLIENT COMPUTING PROPOSAL TO THE OAKLAND COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen: Pursuant to Rule XI-C of this Board, the Finance Committee has reviewed the above referenced resolution and finds: 1. Information Technology has identified Thin Client computing as a strategy for the execution of commonly used application software on a group of servers allowing the end-user devices to be a personal computer or Thin Client device. 2. Thin Client computing will serve as a means to control future operating costs as such devices require fewer hours for service and support. 3. Thin Client computing provides many other benefits such as improving the ability to manage software licenses, increased flexibility in disaster recovery planning, extension of the useful life of the current personal computers, and reduced energy consumption of Thin Client devices. 4. Information Technology proposes a phased approach for implementation of Thin Client environment. Phase I is to establish a baseline configuration and deployment strategy of the Thin Client environment. 5. As reported in the attached Thin Client Computing Phase I and Phase II Proposal, Phase I costs are estimated at 8740,840. $223,412 is available in the Information Technology Fund budget for internal staff costs and $517,428 is available in General Fund Designated Fund Balance (GL #9407-90000). 6. The budget is to be amended for FY 2003 and FY 2004 as follows: Dept-OCA-PCA-Object Description FY 2003 FY 2004 General Fund (101) 90-190000-19000-1582 Prior Year Bal ($517,428) -0- 90-310000-98636-8001 Transfer Out 517,428 -0- $ -0- $ -0- Information Technology Fund (636) Revenue 18-636113-98101-1701 Transfer In $ 517,428 -0- Expense 18-636162-15000-3348 18-636142-15000-3900 18-636142-15000-4101 18-636111-10000-8005 Professional Svcs $ 108,768 Depreciation -0- Hardware 32,000 Changes in Equity 376,660 Total Expenses $ 517,428 -0- $75,332 -0- -0- $75,332 FINANCE COMMITTEE Finance Committee Vote: Motion carried on unanimous roll call vote with Moffitt absent 7/7 Resolution #03138 July 17, 2003 Moved by Patterson supported by Knollenberg the resolution be adopted. AYES: Gregory, Hatchett, Jamian, Knollenberg, KowaII, Law, Long, McMillin, Middleton, Moffitt, Moss, Palmer, Patterson, Potter, Rogers, Scott, Webster, Wilson, Zack, Bullard, Coleman, Coulter, Crawford, Douglas. (24) NAYS: None. (0) A sufficient majority having voted therefore, the resolution was adopted. I HERBY APPROVE THE FOREGOING RESCOMON STATE OF MICHIGAN) COUNTY OF OAKLAND) I, G. William Caddell, Clerk of the County of Oakland, do hereby certify that the foregoing resolution is a true and accurate copy of a resolution adopted by the Oakland County Board of Commissioners on July 17, 2003, with the original record thereof now remaining in my office. In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the County of Oakland at Pontiac, Michigan this 17th day of July, 2003.