In these years we have made the Windows 10 IoT Thin Client line one of our flagships. In particular, there are many recent innovations introduced in the ecosystem of our software products to make the management of workstations based on this operating system increasingly secure, easy, scalable, efficient and flexible.
Thanks to the innovations introduced in the new version of ThinMan Gateway, we have further enhanced the features to support organizations that want to automate and simplify the management of endpoints in their remote offices, also with Windows devices.
Starting today, in fact, ThinMan and ThinMan Gateway offer to all IT managers the possibility to manage the distribution and updating of customized Windows images through the physical or virtual devices of ThinMan Gateway, thus making it possible to optimize management of distributed infrastructures (large or small), lightening the loads on the main company server and reducing the use of bandwidth on WAN networks. This allows great savings, in terms of time and resources necessary for the management and customization of Windows workstations (whether they are for VDI, application kiosks, web, etc.).
Personalisation, maintenance and updating of endpoints even in less connected remote offices will no longer be onerous and problematic tasks, on the contrary, it will now be possible to plan actions calibrated on the characteristics of each remote office, without giving up scalability and automation!
Pros and cons of Windows endpoints
Endpoints based on the Windows 10 IoT operating system are widespread in the world of finance, healthcare, large-scale retail trade, (perhaps through Thin Client workstations), as well as in various industrial sectors, with in line-side devices or devices integrated into modern machinery and in many other areas.
This is because it’s an incomparable solution when it comes to ensuring compatibility, ease of integration with any kind of device or peripheral, even highly specialized ones, or to ensure connectivity with any standard or network protocol.
However, there can be two factors that can scare a bit:
- Security: since Windows solutions are widespread and standardized, are notoriously more targeted by external attacks and malicious software.
- Customization and maintenance: these are usually more voluminous firmwares compared to Linux-based solutions, the management of updates is automated by Microsoft, but, also for this reason, less “controllable” and the automation in the configuration and customization of installations to be scalable requires the application of complex distribution policies and procedures.
For this reason, in some sectors (think of industry), the practice of isolating machines on closed networks has spread, avoiding any maintenance activity unless strictly necessary. An anachronistic “worst”-practice with the spread of on-board software and tools that require maximum connectivity also towards the cloud, as well as inconvenient, since giving up maintenance means disadvantaging security and efficiency.
Furthermore, these are two myths that we feel like debunking, if one relies on the right solutions, such as those to be adopted to strengthen and optimize security: first of all, see the use of distributions equipped with Write Filters (standard in the IoT world ), of secure and certified connections and the use of VDI infrastructures that allow uniformity and high standards of automation, protection and security on the “core” services of large infrastructures.
There are also tools that can make maintenance and customization of routine activities, scalable and simple, without needing to be in a domain, as well as Agile (the agent software for managing Windows devices) and ThinMan Advanced (the endpoint management console) by Praim.
What is ThinMan Gateway?
ThinMan Gateway is the ThinMan console component specifically designed for organizations with multiple locations and large remote infrastructures or characterized by high dispersion and a high number of offices.
By installing ThinMan Gateway in the branches, the administrator will be able to have complete management and remote assistance access to all the devices on the local network of the branch office, simply through a normal connection, without the need to set up a VPN, but rather by exploiting the secure link between ThinMan and the Gateway. Thanks to Gateway’s remote repository, it will also be possible to optimize the distribution of updates, synchronizing only once for each location, thus drastically reducing WAN network traffic, lightening server loads and making the infrastructure more robust.
Deployment and application of Windows firmware images
The Praim software ecosystem, composed of the Agile client agent and the ThinMan console server, has always allowed, on all Praim Windows 10 IoT thin clients, to replicate (clone and apply) the firmware images, thus allowing to create backup of your workstations and to create customized master workstations by integrating software tools and operating system configurations, to be replicated to distribute new features and create uniform infrastructures. A key feature for those who need a highly personalized environment on a large number of workstations!
Firmware images of Windows endpoints, however, are inherently large (average 20GB each). This makes their mass distribution more critical, when it has to be applied to hundreds of devices. Problem exacerbated when you have to administer even remote offices connected via slow or unstable global networks.
Starting from the very recent 2.4.0 version of ThinMan Gateway hardware and virtual appliances (G1000A and G1000V), it’s also possible to distribute and apply the updated images of Windows 10 IoT distributed by Praim, as well as your own clone or backup images. ThinMan Gateway will receive them in a single solution from ThinMan, in a secure and controlled way (with customizable policies for each location), storing them in its own local repository, and then distributing them using the local network. In fact, ThinMan Gateway allows you to define a default behavior for all the Gateways, to then allow you to specialize the single instance (towards the specific remote office), based on its peculiarities (operating needs, location, offices with unstable connectivity or slow network access or temporary, etc.), defining the maximum transfer bandwidth, the time slots for synchronization and the set of files to be transferred.
A unique feature that differentiates Praim’s thin client Windows IoT solutions from any other competitor.
Thanks to this feature it will be possible, for example, to update remote devices more easily and efficiently (and therefore more frequently!), by taking advantage of Praim updates, or to renew customized and updated master images (in terms of both operating system and Application software of interest) to be distributed wherever the workstations are located.
Conclusions
The new features added help companies have simple, efficient and automated, but also flexible and customizable in a granular way control over how remote endpoints are managed in branch offices.
Through the ThinMan Gateway module and Praim’s Windows-based products, it’s now possible to make a qualitative leap in the IT management of your distributed infrastructure, with enormous savings in terms of time, costs and resources, without renouncing the efficiency of Windows 10 IoT solutions.
