Company drastically reduces licensing fees

The AA has installed a thin-client architecture and drastically reduced desktop support and licensing costs.

The breakdown and insurance group’s network had become increasingly difficult and expensive to manage since Novell and Microsoft started to withdraw support for its older systems.

‘Our two main insurance and roadside applications are still on VME [legacy ICL operating system],’ said AA infrastructure design manager Darragh O’Keefe.

‘Previously, we had about 6,500 desktop licences and 50 servers simply to support terminal emulation. We have been able to reduce that to 2,500 licences and just four servers.’

The architecture has been provided by integration and connectivity specialist NDL-Metascybe, and is based on Active Terminal Server (ATS) running on Windows XP. O’Keefe says the key benefits are its ability to manage patches and upgrades centrally as well as added security.

‘In the past, we would have had to roll out any change to about 5,500 desktops. With ATS, all that is managed on central servers,’ he said.

Thin clients have been in place for six months and O’Keefe says the architecture has already more than paid for itself in support and licensing costs.

‘We would like to see a much simpler desktop – particularly in our call centres,’ said O’Keefe. ‘But it takes time because of the considerable redevelopment costs involved. But eventually I’d like to see all our systems running on web-based thin clients.