Wellington City Council is exploring the possibility of using Citrix MetaFrame more extensively so it can deploy older and less expensive PCs on its desktops.
The council has conducted a proof of concept trial, involving office applications — predominantly Microsoft Office and some of its specialist Maori language software — says business technology manger Andrew Ollivier, and it is currently building up a business case.
“That will establish not whether we use MetaFrame — we’re already using it with PeopleSoft and a housing application — but to what extent we will use it.”
The financial figures are comparable for long-term cost of operating under MetaFrame with a low-spec PC or with a higher-spec PC and local software, he says. Also to be considered is the one-off gain through deploying less fully featured PCs. Then there’s a need to support multiple and unforseen applications works against MetaFrame adoption by limiting the extent to which the council can “lock down” its desktop machines to a fixed application set, he says.
Where usage involves a standard set of applications, the Citrix environment will probably be a more appropriate choice, Ollivier says.