The rapidity of technological evolution and of digital workstations’ adoption means that different and mixed hardware solutions often coexist in the company, especially if acquired incrementally. In the case of PCs, it’s very common to have hardware supplies that differ in terms of characteristics and operating system (for example, different Windows versions, such as Windows 10, 11 or the now obsolete Windows 7). Furthermore, other needs can be added, such as that of guaranteeing workstations on the move, often approached thanks to the adoption of laptops and mobile devices.
In this context, guaranteeing IT security and uniformity of management and (digital) application environment to all employees becomes a very complex challenge for IT administrators, but it’s a fundamental requirement for guaranteeing management success and efficiency.
Hardware Repurposing
For these reasons, companies today are looking at technologies that guarantee uniform, efficient and secure corporate digital environments, regardless of the location from which they are accessed (and whether these are offered on-premise or in the cloud, from a device in the company or on the move). Companies search for solutions and hardware devices capable of solving connectivity needs towards the cloud/VDI with the best cost/benefit ratio and, above all, with the best guarantees of security and ease of management.
The good news is that in many cases it’s not necessary to acquire new hardware, but it can be sufficient to reuse and transform the devices already owned by the company. In fact, even obsolete devices can still turn out to be excellent workstations if their use is “reconditioned” through a minimal, efficient, secure operating systems, and optimized for the connection to centralized company IT resources and where the local device exclusively uses specific clients to connect to servers.
Through the use of a common operating system and VDI, for example, it’s possible to achieve both operational efficiency and management (uniformity and security) objectives, satisfying even more any corporate financial needs. In fact, the devices life cycle can be lengthened in the face of limited management costs to license the software solutions useful for the hardware repurposing, postponing or diluting the capital outlay over time that would otherwise be necessary in order to replace the obsolete hardware or to standardize all corporate digital workstations.
ThinOX4PC is Praim’s Linux-based operating system derived from the thin client world, designed to give new life to company PCs and laptops and to “transform” them and third-party devices into secure, efficient and centrally managed Praim thin clients with ThinOX, the secure and VDI-optimized operating system.
ThinOX4PC
The ThinOX4PC operating system, now based on ThinOX v. 12, can be used on a wide range of hardware, equipped with both Intel and AMD chipsets, and supports different connectivity technologies (Wi-Fi cards from the main manufacturers) and peripheral types. The minimum requirements suggested to use ThinOX4PC are 2GB of RAM and a 64-bit processor capable of reaching a frequency of 2GHz if necessary.
The interesting aspect is that ThinOX4PC can be installed directly on the hard disk of the PC or laptop, transforming it definitively, but also be run “live” by starting from a USB stick. This allows combined use of the device, which can operate with ThinOX4PC while also maintaining its original system and, if necessary, with Windows. Think of a portable device created to offer uniform and secure access to corporate VDI through ThinOX, but on which you want to leave the freedom to use Windows and its other office applications for private use or when traveling. In this circumstance, ThinOX4PC can be provided to the user for use, if necessary, on his personal device.
The user will have the chance to boot any device, thanks to the Secure Boot support, from its USB stick. It will be sufficient to guarantee from the BIOS of the device that booting from USB is enabled and has priority at boot. Once the end user has finished using the USB stick, it can be removed and the laptop can be rebooted, starting normally with the operating system instance installed on the drive. In this way, ThinOX4PC allows companies to use any hardware to access shared resources in a secure and uniform way, without being relegated to a single vendor or specific hardware solution.
Once started, ThinOX4PC allows you to create and manage connections to the main cloud or VDI technologies, including:
- Citrix Receiver (Workspace App)
- VMware (Horizon View)
- Remote Desktop Services
- UDS
- Parallels
as well as connections to web or cloud services via browser and others (such as VNC clients or terminal servers such as iAccess).
Access to business-critical data and services will be improved in terms of security, taking place only through the secure protocols managed directly by the various VDI clients, constantly updated in ThinOX. No information is stored on the local device, in fact, ThinOX is a closed operating system, executed in memory (implements disk write blocking), which guarantees no tampering with the device configuration and that it remains free from malware.
Furthermore, together with Praim ThinMan, ThinOX offers corporate IT departments a very powerful centralized and automated management solution for the company endpoints, through a secure protocol. From ThinMan it’s possible to automate the management of updates, the replication of configurations, the distribution of certificates, remote assistance, multi-factor authentication methods and much more.
ThinOX4PC is also the ideal solution for gradually and efficiently dealing with company merger processes (and adaptation of the related IT solutions) or migration between different technologies.
To try ThinOX4PC (and ThinMan’s management functions) you can request a trial to prepare your USB to use live or install it on your device (we suggest using a USB drive of at least 16GB).
