Czech Post, the company that runs the postal service in the Czech Republic, has installed Novell's SuSE Linux on 4,000 servers and 12,000 client terminals. The number of client PCs is set to increase to 15,000 in the near future, according to a Novell spokesman.
The Linux servers are running APOST, a system that handles all postal operations and is used by 20,000 Czech Post employees.
The thin-client architecture, where applications are run off a central server, has cut out the need for new hardware and reduced administration costs at Czech Post, according to Novell.
Previously, APOST ran on a cocktail of operating systems including Windows and DOS, which Novell says meant Czech Post was spending a lot of money administering the software across 3,400 locations and was experiencing downtime and security issues.
Ales Kucera, Novell country manager for the Czech Republic, said Linux provided a cost-effective way for Czech Post to avoid investing in new hardware.
"Having to upgrade hardware would have cost Czech Post far more than they could have afforded," said Kucera in a statement.
Other organisations have already discovered the potential cost-savings of using thin clients running Linux. Car hire firm Europcar claimed to have dramatically cut its hardware and maintenance costs by migrating 1,500 rental stations to thin clients running Linux. In addition, an organisation in Chile is turning nearly 10,000 computers in Chilean schools into Linux thin clients.
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4,000 servers and 20,000 users. That's one server for every five users. Does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture?
1 Feb 05 03:35 ReplyNot if 1 server = an AMD 2500+ or something, and the 4 users are running P100 with no hard drive and OS (thin client, you can reuse old junk for the terminals)
1 Feb 05 07:56 ReplyIf they're sticking one of these 'servers' in each post office, they won't need a mega box with dual CPU and RAID and so on. I run a network at a small school which has an AMD2500+ desktop PC as a server - 512mb ram, 2 x 40gb hard drives and a 100mbit network card. It runs between 6 and 20 thin client terminals at a time, no sweat. They're using it for OpenOffice and Firefox mostly.
Number of terminal servers = number of postal offices, what's wrong?
1 Feb 05 12:03 Reply1 server = 1 post office
1 Feb 05 21:30 Reply1 client = 1 lady on the post office :-)