Flexxible IT Partners with HP, Inc. on Thin Client Solution

The way hardware and software are consumed by organizations has been slowly but surely changing. It used to be hardware and software were purchased separately by solution providers that created a custom solution for the end customer. But it’s becoming increasingly clear customers want a more turnkey solution that’s easier to set up and manage. That, in turn, is starting to change how various hardware and software offerings move through the channel.

A case in point is Flexxible IT, a provider of workspace environments for applications, that has teamed up with HP, Inc. to jointly make available a turnkey solution based HP thin clients along with software from Citrix and Microsoft that is only available via the channel.

Rather than having to invest all the time and effort required to create and equivalent solution for small-to-medium (SMBs), the combined offering combines the hypervisor, storage replication software, Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop software, Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 operating systems, Microsoft Azure Overflow, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Azure Backup and Citrix NetScaler networking software into a single offering, says Flexxible IT CEO Sebastian Prat.

“It’s a one-stop shop solution for SMBs,” says Prat.

Not only is this offering simpler to set up, Prat notes the fact that it’s been validated in a lab by both Flexxible IT and HP means it’s also a lot easier to support.
A more turnkey approach also serves to make it simpler for solution providers to also deliver a managed service around an integrated workspace experience for the end user versus trying to manage each application in isolation, adds Prat.

In general, cybersecurity concerns are driving a lot more interest in thin clients. But setting up thin client solutions can be a complicated endeavor requiring a lot of backend application and infrastructure expertise. The cost of all that expertise often winds conspiring to drive the total cost of the solution higher than solution providers or their end customers anticipated. If solution providers can lower those costs the appeal of an integrated workspace solution based on thin clients increases accordingly, says Prat.

Of course, an end customer might decide to employ traditional PCs to access an integrated workspace. But for advocates of thin clients, the rise of integrated workspaces should go a long way to helping them overcome resistance to giving up desktop PCs that continue to be problematic to manage and especially secure.