The Psychiatrisches Zentrum Nordbaden (PZN) is one of Germany’s most modern specialist psychiatric hospitals. With six separate departments comprising a large number of assessment and treatment units the organization employs a total of 1,500 people. Home services and holistic therapies tailored to the patients needs, involving family members wherever possible, minimise treatment times. To support this modern approach, the centre’s information technology has recently been re-designed for high efficiency.


Reduced network bandwidth

The 100-hectare site, located a few kilometres to the south of Heidelberg, comprises 75 buildings, 45 wards, and a residential psychiatric home. IT manager Steffen Mohn says: 'The organisation has to manage around 750 terminals. In the past, these were all PCs and laptops on a client-server network, which meant we had very high local administration costs. Most of the PC workstations were specific to particular staff members, so we needed lots of user profiles, which again cost us more money.'

The opening of a new remote site in 2001 provided an opportunity to simplify the centre’s administration. 'All we had was one narrowband line to the computer centre, so we looked for alternatives to PCs involving the creation of an independent server infrastructure at the new site. As a result, we decided to introduce Server Based Computing and Thin Clients.'

The new infrastructure, based on Windows 2000 and Citrix MetaFrame, was implemented soon afterwards. The migration itself resulted in a lasting reduction in network data traffic, since the ICA communication protocol is particularly suited to long distances and requires limited bandwidth. Control and screen data are exchanged between the server and terminal, while applications run centrally on the server.


The customer

• The Psychiatrisches Zentrum Nordbaden: one of the most modern specialist hospitals of its kind
• 1,500 employees, 100 hectares, 75 buildings and 45 wards
• 750 workstation PCs and laptops on a client-server network with very high local administration costs
  

'We don’t have to spend so much time any more manag- ing our network clients,' Mohn explains. 'In return our IT department now has more capacity for important tasks such as implementing new functions and applications and maximising network availability.'


IGEL’s new generation of Thin Clients

Shortly after the centre began using first-generation Thin Clients based on Windows CE, it encountered significant problems. Central administration technology was still in its infancy, making it much more difficult to remedy faults.

'We analysed the market and decided on IGEL, and we soon realised that we could use Linux clients to completely redesign the system,' says Steffen Mohn.

The centre contacted the manufacturer and soon afterwards began a hardware and function test, with very positive results. 'We very quickly found that IGEL’s products were exactly what we needed. We particularly needed support for keyboards with integrated health service card scanners, WLAN connections via optional USB devices, as well as interfaces for USB label printers. The IGEL thin clients met all our needs, and came across as very flexible and reliable. This healthy mixture of applications flexibility, quality and support offers best protection of investment.'


The challenge

• Maintain costs by not having to update a limited bandwidth line between highly dispersed sites and the computer centre
• Reducing network bandwidth surge due to client server architecture
• Support required for integrated keyboard and scanner for health service cards
  

Efficient management comes as standard

Steffen Mohn is particularly enthusiastic about IGEL’s Remote Management Suite. 'This powerful tool allows us to carry out typical tasks such as configuration changes and firmware updates on an efficient, automated basis. It also includes a new and reliable failsafe update mechanism, guaranteeing that hardware will continue working even if the update process is disrupted.'

Mohn also says the management software is easy to use, despite the large number of functions it offers. 'The user interface looks exactly the same as that of the local Thin Client. Unlike many other suppliers’ complex or more universal solutions, the free IGEL tool requires no training and allows us to manage the Thin Client pool quickly and efficiently.'

The freely definable group profiles, allocated using drag and drop, have been particularly useful. 'This feature, and the standard wake on LAN functionality, reduces our configuration and installation times to a minimum. New applications are quick and easy to implement and roll out, allowing us to maintain business as usual.' Some specific PC costs cease to apply, such as the time-consuming process of installing and maintaining distributed user profiles and licences for local anti-virus software.


Step-by-step migration

The centre has now also fully modernised its servers and migrated to Windows 2003 Server and Citrix Presentation Server. The consolidated Citrix farm has been reduced from 15 servers to 10, and Mohn professes himself highly satisfied with the current architecture. 'We‘re talking about up to 200 simultaneous accesses, but we’ve left ourselves room to use more Thin Clients. The migration to the new Thin Client environment took place step by step over a long period, and is not yet complete. We already have 280 of them in use, and we’ll be adding 40 to 50 new ones each year until there are no more old machines.'


The solution

• 280 IGEL thin clients and migration to Windows 2003 Server and Citrix Presentation Server
• Reduced, predictable and smooth client bandwidth requirements
• IGEL Remote Management Suite for simplified thin client administration, significantly accelerating the rollout of 40-50 new clients a year
• Drastically reduced TCO compared with PCs thin clienting
  

Cutting client costs

Studies have shown that the centre can expect three-digit Euro cost savings for each Thin Client replacing a desktop, and Mohn says this has laid the foundations for the IT infrastructure of the future. 'The new IGEL thin clients have given us an efficient and economical standard workstation with reliable long-term manufacturer support. Instead of wasting time on day-to-day administration, we can now focus on more productive IT tasks.'


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