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| The Lifeline Project Signs a Deal with Alchemy Systems The Lifeline Project, a substance abuse charity, has signed a virtual hosted desktop deal with Alchemy Systems to manage its computing needs at a cost of £9.99 per person, per month (+vat), including an IGEL thin client. Alchemy's Virtual Open Desktop service delivers a complete computing solution to the 60-person charity, based in London's Hackney. With the Virtual Open Desktop service, each customer receives an IGEL thin client which can be plugged in and up and running in minutes. The service uses Open Source software including Open Office, a Zimbra email client and the FireFox web browser to allow users to work without the cost of expensive software licenses. Alchemy Systems has also customised the desktops for the Lifeline Project staff, so that they can still access their specialised applications such as patient care management tools. The energy efficient, IGEL Linux thin clients mean that the charity's hardware is simple, secure and easy to support remotely. The IGEL units are managed remotely by the Alchemy support team using the IGEL Universal Management Suite software, which comes free with every IGEL thin client. The thin clients are also secure as they are virus free and all information is stored securely on the server, meaning if the thin clients are stolen or damaged no information is lost. As part of the service, Alchemy hosts the charity's information at its secure data centre and applications are accessed by the charity via the Internet using a software as a service model (SaaS) over a secure SSH connection, using a free NX client. This technology speeds data transfer ensuring that users receive a PC-like experience, despite applications and information being hosted remotely. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Computing News :: home page |