IBM is deploying Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Terminal Services to approximately 6,000 users throughout North America to enable access to Windows-based productivity applications from a heterogeneous base of client devices. Administrators expect Terminal Services to increase the speed of application deployment and to reduce support and administration costs.
Customer Profile
IBM creates, develops, and manufactures some of the industry’s most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices, and microelectronics.
IBM's terminal server project originated in 1997 with the deployment of Citrix Winframe, which supported productivity and line-of-business applications to a pilot group of 500 IBM Network Station—family thin clients within the TJ Watson Research Center. By late 1998, IBM had migrated these users to Microsoft Windows NT® Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition and had increased the pilot to more than 2,000 users.
The solution originally was targeted at administrative task workers and manufacturing floor workers located at several sites throughout the organization. It enabled those users to access their applications and e-mail just by clicking an icon on the screen.
However, as the benefits became apparent, the pilot expanded to include researchers on AIX technical workstations and other office workers who wanted to be able to access a standard set of Windows-based applications from any platform on which they chose to work. By the end of 1999, IBM had deployed Terminal Server Edition to serve more than 6,000 users.
Windows 2000 Terminal Services Helps Increase Productivity
IBM is currently pilot testing the Terminal Services in the Windows 2000 Server operating system. The Citrix ICA software client is used on devices that are not Windows-based, providing users on any platform with easy access to business-critical applications. Initial results with Windows 2000 Terminal Services indicate that the operating system handles simultaneous connections in a more robust fashion. This helps to improve the responsiveness of the overall system.
Technical developers on AIX workstations log into a Windows 2000-based terminal server that gives them access to a full Windows 2000 desktop with a standardized set of applications. "We have some chip designers up in Burlington who run CADAM programs on high-end AIX boxes and then just click on the Terminal Services window when they hear the beep that they have mail," explains Dave Nielsen, Windows 2000 Terminal Services Project Lead. "Terminal Services enables our AIX users to use our standard Lotus Notes 5.x mail client."
Centralized Application Deployment Facilitates Rapid Updates
A secondary goal for IBM’s use of Terminal Services is to support rapid deployment of applications and updates. With Terminal Services, administrators can centrally deploy applications to the server, which means they will be able to deploy applications much more quickly and update them more cost effectively than if they have to visit every desktop.
"From my perspective, upgrading a server running Windows 2000 Terminal Services with the next version of an application takes a day, and hundreds of users will have access to it. The alternative is touching each user’s machine, either through centralized software distribution or local CD installation," Nielsen says. "Terminal Services provides a quick, reliable upgrade path and version compatibility, which helps to save time and cut costs."
Tighter Integration Reduces Administration, Improves Compatibility
IBM uses Windows 2000 Terminal Services to deploy a standardized set of applications and tools to desktops, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Lotus Notes, Smart Suite applications, and other utilities. IBM also uses Windows 2000 Terminal Services to provide desktop access to applications on other systems.
IBM also expects this integration to improve application compatibility. Nielsen anticipates that the Windows 2000 Server logo program will help applications originally written for a single user to be upgraded for compatibility in a multiuser environment. "A large portion of our time is spent building a computer server image for the corporation, and a large part of that time is spent making some of those applications behave correctly in the multiuser environment," explains Nielsen. "We’re looking forward to a lot more awareness of Terminal Services from our software vendors."
Nielsen expects to realize support benefits by eliminating the separate scheduled service release tracks for Windows NT Server and Terminal Server Edition. The functional integration of Terminal Services into Windows 2000 Server will dramatically simplify service release issues for administrators.
Extensive Terminal Services Deployment Planned
The Windows 2000 Terminal Services pilot currently includes about 100 users. The Windows 2000 Terminal Services deployment team is now working on a plan to migrate the remainder of the 6,000 Terminal Server users to the new platform. The majority of these users are planned to be migrated by the end of 2000. The most ambitious deployment of Windows 2000 Terminal Services, currently in the planning phase, is to a group of diverse workstations used by more than 10,000 manufacturing workers. These workstations will be shared and will use Terminal Services to provide users with access to a limited application suite.
Remote Administration Increases the Reach of Support Personnel
The Remote Administration mode of Terminal Services enables administrators to remotely administer system resources such as file and print servers, domain controllers, and compute servers. "We advocate having Terminal Services on all cluster servers. It’s been one of the most critical tools in solving problems in remote sites," Nielsen says. "I can log on at my console from here in New York and quickly fix problems at locations that are 10 or more hours away."
Support and Administration personnel take advantage of Terminal Services remote administration mode and the Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to remotely administer Windows 2000-based servers. "For an administrator, remote administration is a necessary tool. It’s the best administrative tool for remote access that I’ve used. Using the RDP client is like you’re actually sitting at the box," Nielsen continues.
Universal Access Means Lower TCO
Terminal Services meets the primary challenge presented by the IBM project, which is to deploy Windows-based applications to clients that are not Windows-based, and to administer and update those applications as quickly as necessary, whether they are new applications or simply upgrades to a newer release or version of applications.
"In addition to just giving users access to applications, Windows 2000 Terminal Services ensures that the end users’ data is continuously backed up in a central location, and that when the next software version becomes available, it will be on users’ desktops as soon as it’s installed on the server," Nielsen says. "In theory, by reducing the soft costs of support personnel, we should be able to reduce total cost of ownership."
