Networking 1 PC to run an entire business?

[01Lude]

Businesses currently have to buy multiple PC's to operate, and I think that with the amount of computing power available that it's kind of overkill to have 1 PC for each person in the office. Is there a way to set up a powerful machine to run several instances of windows at once, so each employee would instead just get a simple monitor and keyboard in his/her office instead of $1000 machine for each person? I think this can greatly reduce costs for many businesses but I have no idea how to set up such a system.

[CrazyNutz]

Setup a Windows Terminal Server.

You'll still need a "thin client" at each person/station but this can be cheap or old hardware since the server will be doing all the hard work. Also the thin clients can run Linux and rdesktop http://www.rdesktop.org/
so you dont have to pay M$ for windows on each one.

[01Lude]

What about running several virtual machines? I also read a bit about virtual desktops. That terminal server idea sounds like I'll have to add another machine when what I want to do is reduce the number of machines.

[zanzabar]

What about running several virtual machines? I also read a bit about virtual desktops. That terminal server idea sounds like I'll have to add another machine when what I want to do is reduce the number of machines.

its normally not a very good idea, normally if u dont need power on the client pcs u just get a cheap box with an IGP and low end cpu, small HDD and then u configure the server to run as a domain controller/app host and have everything get stored on the server. if u go for a true thin client and do lan boot it ends up costing just as much and its a huge pain.

[CrazyNutz]

Here's something else you might look into http://www.evga.com/articles/00611/

[Entity_Razer]

well ... your going about it a bit wrong to be fair.

First of you say you wish to reduce cost and consolidate hardware (basically). The thing that "fits" best on the premise of these 2 conditions is Terminal Services on Windows 2008 R2. Would need 1 "big machine" and then some thinclients costing between 150 and 300 a piece (depending on which vendor you go for).

Now, the real problem though is with the conditions of:

- I want to cut costs

we can't make a informed decisions... what kind of applications do you run, whats the expected load on this machine, are all users doing the same thing or are some designers, others financial employees or technical (autocad) users ?

Once we know these things we can help you further.

what we need to know

- How many people are we talking ?
- What programs will be used
- Will people use the same programs, or is everyone using a different set of programs ?
- Is there specific software that needs to be supported ?
- Budget ? (I can tell you now 1000 isn't going to cut it.... licensing costs would eat that up in a heartbeat... no matter which option you go for)
- How "busy" or how much load will the users generate. (if everyone's just using word / outlook / internet then thats a completely different thing as opposed to everyone running advanced Excel spreadsheets and /or a accounting program).


Answer me those questions and i'll help you further on your path

if I don't answer "soon" send me a PM though

Cheers

[EniGmA1987]

sent you a very lengthy PM. I did exactly what you are asking at my business and it worked out very well.