Thin client’s ultra-efficient processor helps distributor to push energy-saving agenda

Distributor CDG is looking to raise its UK profile with a bundle of products designed to provide resellers with a compelling energy-saving solution for businesses of all sizes.

Founded in the Netherlands 25 years ago, CDG opened its UK office in 2005 and now has 18 UK resellers.

Allan Tyrrell, UK managing director at CDG, said: “We’ve been trying to work out a value proposition to push in the UK and it just so happens that the products of our three vendors all have green advantages.”

The latest addition to CDG’s portfolio, following a distribution agreement last month, is a hybrid thin/flat-client device ­ no bigger than a paperback book ­ from vendor Cranberry that can perform all the business functions of a normal PC, but uses a fraction of the electricity.

“This is due to an ultra-efficient microprocessor in Cranberry’s SC20 Smart Client, which means it consumes just 10 per cent of the power of a standard PC,” said Tyrrell.

Cranberry chief executive Simon Ponsford added: “As the SC20 uses less power than a standard computer and produces less heat, businesses save on air conditioning costs. The SC20 offers a genuinely viable and greener alternative to the vulnerable and power-hungry office PC.”

Although the green benefits of the Smart Client are not the device’s only selling point, it does fit nicely into CDG’s green strategy.

“Green is now top of the agenda for most businesses. We want to educate both resellers and end users about the energy savings that can be made by selecting the right technology,” said Tyrrell.

CDG’s other green products are from software vendors SWsoft and RES. CDG has developed a way to use RES’s Wisdom maintenance and management program to switch off dormant PCs and servers at night and restart them the next morning.

“If resellers couple a Cranberry Smart Client with Wisdom and SWsoft’s virtualisation software, they will have a solution that will give businesses a big energy reduction,” added Tyrrell.

Steve Whitfield, sales manager at VAR Intercept IT, said: “We have been buying from CDG for 18 months. Over the last year we have noticed an increase in requests for green solutions in public sector tenders.”