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Military and medical security receive a boost For any military base, security is a top concern. Plus, Ohrenberger's IT department also needs to ensure the security of patient records to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Ohrenberger said having the blades housed in a closet behind a locked door, rather than out on the desktop, provides big security advantages. For example, no one can come in and walk out with a PC. "Additionally, if my PC is just sitting out there, you can walk up and throw a floppy disk or writable CD in it and just start copying information," Ohrenberger said. "But, because you can add or subtract peripherals like 3.5-inch and CD drives, ClearCube users who don't really need the devices don't have them installed, closing those points of access." In addition, a ClearCube environment helps protect the network. An intruder could bring a laptop into a building, hook into an Ethernet port, and easily begin reading network traffic. "In the ClearCube environment, the connection that's on the wall plate is just a video signal, so if you connect a laptop or another computer to it, it's not seeing information, just a video signal that it can't interpret," Ohrenberger said.
User reactions are mixed Although the support and security advantages were clear to the IT department early in the pilot program, some users were skeptical of having their PC boxes replaced by C/Ports the size of videocassettes. In particular, some didn't want to give up their 3.5-inch diskette or CD-ROM drives, but Ohrenberger said many came to realize that they didn't really need the devices. For example, none of the ClearCubes in patient treatment rooms needed an external drive. And the people at the cramped front desk especially liked the smaller footprint of the ClearCube. Only about 15 diskette and 15 CD-ROM drives are deployed now, mainly in administrators' offices. Users also liked that the C/Ports are quieter because they generate significantly less heat than PCs, which require fan cooling. Estimated costs and savings ClearCube blades cost significantly more initially compared to most traditional desktop units. Ohrenberger's estimate for the cost of the project included these line items for each new user:
"Total life-cycle savings after three years turned out to be about a half million dollars each year, for a total of about a million and a half." The greatest savings came reducing the time technicians would have to spend maintaining the systems, which Ohrenberger estimated to be worth about $330,000 per year. Less power consumption would save another $28,800 annually and streamlined asset management would save about $33,000 annually. A central office in Texas must approve all Air Force Medical Service IT procurement so Ohrenberger hasn't yet received the okay to roll out ClearCubes throughout his department. But his pilot project with ClearCubes has already convinced him to recommend that the Air Force Medical Support Agency allow other CIOs to consider a racked PC solution to replace older desktop models. How does your company manage the high cost of replacing PCs? Is a blade server/thin client solution a serious consideration for your company? TalkBack below or e-mail us with your thoughts. TechRepublic provides insight, advice, and technical information written by IT professionals for IT professionals. Have the top IT experts by your side today--FREE!
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