Punjab National Bank: Sun Ray Implementation

There was a growing need to have more desktop PCs and workstation areas in
PNB's data center. Provisioning for these was easier said than done, because
managing the existing fleet itself was a costly affair. There were security
issues because data resided on individual PCs and wasn't backed up. There was
space wastage as each PC had its own individual printer connected to it. Hence
the management decided to change 60% of the desktops to thin clients, for which
60 Sun Ray units were deployed.

These were single units with integrated LCD monitors, due to which they took
lesser space on the desktop. Moreover, they didn't have a local OS, hard drive,
or cooling fans, due to which they consumed 1/10th the power of an ordinary
desktop. This not only reduced the overall power consumption, but also reduced
the cooling costs. Even the MTBF of these clients was 4x of ordinary desktops.

All processing happened from a central server, making it easier to manage data
security and data backups. Moreover, users could login from any unit and were
not bound to specific ones. Due to this, the 60 units were shared amongst 110
users, who worked in shifts. Moreover, printing was centralized, as against a
printer on each desktop in the earlier setup.

Overall, the bank got a RoI of 46% as compared to regular desktops.