SunRay Thin Client devices are one of the best ways we have seen of replacing traditional desktop PCs. They are purpose-built and offer multimedia support (full sound and video), secure fine-grained access control based on optional smart cards and they couple that with the usual manageability benefits of thin client devices. An expected in-service lifetime of six to eight years and only four watts (typical) power consumption help to reduce costs drastically. To do them full justice would take an entire website - you really have to see them in action to understand them fully. It's unnerving to walk into a room full of SunRays and experience the silence: silence from the devices themselves and also the lack of air-conditioning hum. You don't have to log-out, just pull out your smartcard and walk away - then when you plug it in again (maybe on the other side of the world if you are using Global Desktop too), you get your desktop back with your applications still open. A thoroughly amazing experience if you haven't seen it before.

See below for links to white papers describing how we deliver thin client desktops in school environments.

Sun's Secure Global Desktop (SGD) is an extraordinary piece of work. Many people will use it simply to give secure, controlled access to their desktops from remote locations. It does this extremely well and permits people to work whilst travelling, or at home as well as in their usual place of work. Users' sessions can be preserved so they can suspend what they were doing, travel somewhere different and then carry on without missing a beat; all that's needed is internet access and a java-enabled web browser. SGD is highly configurable and integrates extremely well with SunRay terminals and smartcard access control. Not only does it provide remote access to traditional computer desktops, but it also allows seamless integration with applications running on a wide range of computer systems such as Linux and Unix - windows on the screen can simultaneously access Windows, Solaris, Linux, AIX, HP-UX, AS/400 and Mainframe applications, all at the same time.

You can read more about how we deliver thin client desktops in school environments in these white papers (pdf format): Sun Ray for Schools - an outline of thin client benefits and Cutter Technologies - the technology used to deploy thin clients. The environmental benefits of using thin clients are becoming increasingly valued and we discuss those in our Green Technology white paper (pdf).

Easy-manage, expandable storage systems have traditionally been available only to organisations with very deep pockets. Sun Microsystems' Amber Road range is innovative, high performance and affordable. We sell, support and install it because we believe it delivers what our customers want.

The Cutter desktop system provides an Open Source alternative to typical Microsoft®-based computer systems for use in office and educational environments where control of costs and return on investment are critical.

Cutter's low cost, low risk centralised control and management reduces licence fees and hardware upgrade costs whilst continuing to provide compatibility with almost all software applications such as Microsoft Office®

An overview of our experiences of open source software in UK schools can be found in this short white paper (pdf format).

E learning is becoming more important in the thinking of educators across the world. Schools, colleges and universities are supplementing traditional classroom-based learning with web based virtual learning environments (VLE). Teachers are given to design and build courses and then publish them for students. These courses can range from very simple information only courses to fully interactive courses with multimedia.

Our experience using the Moodle package allows us to install and support significant VLE deployments based on this industry-leading software.

Continuous monitoring of computer systems can help to ensure that system outages are rapidly reported and rectified. When resources become low, systems managers should be given ample warning so that they can react to the situation before it becomes a problem. Being able to spot trends by regular observation as well as being automatically warned when problems develop helps to ensure that users get the highest quality services.

In the past, expensive monitoring and management packages have been an essential part of high-availability systems. In the Open Source world, the excellent Nagios and Cacti packages provide features normally only found in commercial packages that cost thousands or tens of thousands to licence and configure.

The Cutter Enterprise Email Server is a fully-featured based Email Server built on tried and tested Open Source packages. It is designed to be not only simple to configure and use, but also flexible enough to fulfil the requirements of small to medium enterprises including schools, businesses and charities.

The Cutter Enterprise Email Server offers a rich set of features including many that are expensive add-ons with other commercial email products. It provides integration with commercial or free virus solutions, in built SPAM filtering, support for all standard email clients via clear or encrypted connections, full web access to email, full remote management using web based administration, an integrated mailing list server and message content protection.

As you probably know, you can't just take waste electrical equipment to the local recycling centre free of charge. Dealing with hazardous and non-hazardous electronic waste can be quite an issue for organisations nowadays. If fat-client PCs have been replaced with modern low-power thin client devices there can be a lot of stuff that needs to be scrapped. Cutter can work in conjunction with GreenIT Box to provide you with a simple way of disposing of waste and obtaining documentary evidence of secure disposal: all for a fixed price paid in advance based purely on the size of the box.

The GreenIT Box is delivered on a pallet suitable for either 120Kg or 250Kg of waste. You fill it with laptops, printers, hard drives, fax machines, servers, desktops, pdas, cables and other IT equipment then call to have it taken away. Green IT Box arrange for it to be removed, securely disposed of and will provide a certificate of destruction.