Jetstar unveils thin client, BYO laptop vision

[Damian N]

What next.....BYO chair? desk?

[James K]

The low-cost offshoot of Qantas spends around 1 per cent of its revenue on IT annually.

Aint that the truth!

[Kelvin R]

1% is still high compared to some of the EU LCC. Tiger's is probably 0.5%.

[Montague S]

just curious, does anyone know what type of system QF uses for check-in etc? I noticed that WYSE systems are at Jetstar, we have them at Avis too...just wondering if its all a similar set-up?

[Mick F]

But don't you also see employees with cheap and underspeed machines as being a problem too Andrew?

What part of Jetstar do you work in?

Mick

[Stephen Brown]

Thin Clients work great while the background Network is up, network goes down and you're in a world of hurt.

[Kelvin R]

That's not entirely true, as the latest version of Citrix has an offline function. I imagine this or a Vmware image is what is going to be on the 16 Gb image on the flash card provided for the laptops.

[Chris Griffiths]

Stephen, you have a valid point but in the airline reservation and check-in world if the network is down you are in a world of hurt anyway.
A well designed and engineered thin client system is going to be more stable and reliable than stand alone processes running on thousands of separate machines.
Airline systems are ideal for this approach as the PC in many cases is effectively doing nothing more than Terminal emulation anyway.

[Ash W]

Originally Posted by Kelvin R

That's not entirely true, as the latest version of Citrix has an offline function. I imagine this or a Vmware image is what is going to be on the 16 Gb image on the flash card provided for the laptops.

Nah that's not how Vmare works. Basically you have a real server somewhere which is running VMware. On this server you create virtual workstations.

The image that is on the laptop will boot the laptop into a 'thin client' mode, which will then connect over the network to the virtual workstation. As the connection is over RDP (or I think Citrix too) you can also use thin clients such as the Wyse/HP if you desire.

Where I work we do something very similar but without the need for a seperate immage. I imagine in Jetstar's case this is an added security meassure of some kind. In our own office we use traditional PC's, but on the road we connect to our virtual PC using RDP. This can either be on our remote office's network or indeed from any IP connection, including the Internet at home.

The great thing about Vmware is security, as the PC is essentialy in a controlled enviorment.

[Kelvin R]

Ash W: You're right, that is how the Vmware and Citrix of old worked, you can however do far more with it these days. Offline access was a real sticking point, especially for laptop users and both companies now offer some sort of offline solution. Have a look at

http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/pr...ntentID=163983

Applications are streamed to a client device and run in a protected, virtual environment. Users have access to applications whenever and wherever they want — even when they are not connected to a network. Applications are cached locally in an isolation environment, rather than installed on the device, which eliminates application delivery conflicts and the need for extensive regression testing.

Vmware have a similiar solution as well. BTW Vmware has lots of security issues but don't let that you put you off.

Chris d: I generally find people experience poor performance from Citrix when the Citrix software is not configured correctly. The ICA protocol contains many features which enable it to run over low speed connections. Typically poor performance is as a result of the implementation, not the product itself.

There was a video around but I can't find it of Boeing talking about how they used Catia via Citrix to design the 7E7 using 50 design centres and how they were doing 1 Tb of data a day.

The problem with Citrix is that it is actually a complicated piece of software and you really need at least a CCEA to do the design and config. The average Windows System Administrator can't get the thing working properly but they still like to give it a red hot go. So users and the business write Citrix off as being poor when it is actually a staff skillset and training issue. Most organisations try and do it in house as a good CCEA or CCIA costs upwards of $2200 a day and you typically need them for a few weeks. A large implementation could cost $250,000 in install services. However the ROI is usually less than 12 mths even when these costs are included.

As for BYO phone and laptop, there are two models in play here, the first is employees are getting a grant of up to a certain amount every three years to purchase a device, however it is their device.

The second is saying having a laptop and a mobile is a condition of employment if your role requires one. I guess this is similair to saying that a sales rep has to have a car and a mobile if they want a job. This I think is a slippery slope, as the tax incentives for an individual are not especially attractive.