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Remote working
Clients are able to achieve remote working through Coldharbour Systems' Terminal Server solution utilising Microsoft Terminal Services and Citrix technologies. A Terminal Server is a device that provides PCs, printers and other devices held at remote locations, with a common connection point to your Local Area Network (LAN) at Head Office. The Terminal Server resides at Head Office and remote sites can access software and applications held on the Head Office File Server via the Terminal Server.
Terminal Server uses a "Thin Client" architecture. The traditional LAN architecture is a "Fat Client" architecture (Figure 1 (PDF)) whereby when a PC accesses an application or data from the main File Server, the whole application and data is transferred to the memory of the PC accessing it. Changes are made and once completed all the data has to be transferred back to the File Server.
In a LAN architecture these large amounts of data (e.g. 2 - 10MB in Figure 1 (PDF)) do not pose a problem to the physical cables connecting the network together. However you can imagine that if the distances between the PC and the File Server increased (and hence the length of cable connecting the PCs had to increase) this could affect the performance of a PC accessing the application/software.
A "Thin Client" architecture (as shown in Figure 2 (PDF)) is where the data and applications held on the File Server at Head Office stays on the server when accessed by a remote PC. The only data which is transferred to the PC are the screen updates (any changes made on the screen, mouse clicks and keystrokes). In Figure 2 (PDF) you can see that the amount of data flowing between the PCs and the File Server is greatly reduced to 10 - 20KBs.
- Infrastructure
"Thin Client" architecture allows for remote PC's to access Head Office applications over the Internet through an encrypted "tunnel". This means that no cabling between the sites is required. - Cost
A further advantage of Terminal Server is that the PCs accessing the data remotely don't need to be as high specification as they would have to be if accessing the Head Office Server under a "Fat Client" architecture. Therefore costs for additional PCs will be lower. - Longevity
As a result of the PCs not physically running the applications and therefore not having to use as much processing power, the average ‘life span' of each PC using Terminal Server is longer than if you were using PCs under the traditional network architecture.
Setting up a Terminal Server Platform
In order to set up a Terminal Server Platform, the following outline processes would be followed:-
- Each site requiring access to the Head Office LAN will require ADSL connection.
- A dedicated SDSL line is required at Head Office to allow for the data to be transferred from the sites (over the internet) to Head Office.
- A Terminal Server will be required at Head Office.
