In this post just wanted to highlight on the key milestones on the Desktop Virtualization in the Stage 1. These helped to ramp up the business and set the stage for the second phase of Client Virtualization in India..
- The fist major milestone for Thinclients on E-Governance came from Tamil Nadu State Government. The Thinclients were based on Windows CE and connected to servers with Windows Terminal Servers. This gave the much needed confidence boosting in the early days that Thinclient solution can be implemented sucessfully at multiple locations with out much issues.
- The seond mile stone was of the Thinclient Adaption by Karnataka High court. Karnataka High Court 2000 + Devices and that was one of biggest Thinclient orders WW at that point of time. The Thinclients were based Embedded Linux and connecting to Windows Terminal Servers. This also gave the much needed confidence of using Embedded Linux for the SBC deployments and also set the stage for a revolution on the Embedded OS. (Even now Embedded Linux are ruling the entry level client market).
- The Third milestone was of Thinclient adaption by NTPC and SAIL. They are the major PSU's and understood the value of Desktop Virtualization in the early stages. Of this NTPC has gone ahead and made is as mandate of going ahead with Thinclients for selected set of users. They were using Linux Embedded Thinclients connected to the Windows Terminal Server. This was critical as major PSU's adapting Thinclients helped convince other customer in the market and many other SMB customers and Manufacturing companies started adapting Thinclients slowly.
- The Fourth Milestone was of LIC adapting Thinclients in a big way. This deployment was with Embedded Linux with a local browser and connecting to the local Linux servers. This also made the entry point for VIA processors in the Embedded Thinclient Market and till now VIA is ruling the market. This also highlighted the fact that if the solution is not designed and executed properly it will fail in the market. (LIC did not bought Thinclients after initial two lots).
- The Fifth and the key milestone was of Punjab National Bank adapting Thincilents. This opened up a all new market for Embedded Thinclients in Indian Market. They were using Thinclients based on Windows Embedded XP and was used in their Core Banking Environment. The solution designing and execution of the solution was done flalwlessly and the implementation was very much sucessfull at PNB. Almost 8+ Years now and PNB is buying Thinclients even now.. (I am happy on this point as i designed the solution and also lead the key project team which lead the implementation across the country.. :-) :-)).
After this around 2004-2006 there was not much developments on the solution and there are much breaks with major accounts.. This lead to stagnation in the market as there were few customers especially in the Banking vertical(PNB / OBC, SBI etc.) were buying in bulk and the other major market (Federal Business) was yet to adapt in a big way..
Around this time lot of thought process was going on with the new solutions.. i had few points in my mind at that time and really felt that these will certainly the change the perception on Thinclients and can help change the market.. The below were the key points i was discussing with my R&D collegues in HCL..
- Having an Embedded Linux Thinclients with inbuilt open office and full fledged browser and Mail client
- Local printer support (Cups and other drivers)
- LDAP Support for Active Directory Interaction
- Multi Lingual support (MLT / GIST) with in the Embedded Linux
These were key thought process which were going on and i was finding it difficult to convince our R&D team then to look at in to this.. The main reason was that there was no fixed business or volume commitment which you can give to put on that much of efforts.. (The market was created later.. :-)) and devoting on this means moving out of the regular development which were happening at that point of time..
At this point of time.. the slowly the Client Virtualization Stage 2 started.. Next post will see the client virtualization stage 2.. :-) :-)
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