Florida Atlantic University Invests In Zero Clients to Keep Up with Computer Use, Cut Energy Costs

In order to keep up with demanding energy efficiency standards and students’ computer needs, Florida Atlantic University (FAU) needed to invest in a solution that was both high-performing and green.

That solution was trading in all the traditional computer towers for ViewSonic’s SC-Z55 zero clients.

James Mauser says in addition to the SC-Z55 model, FAU will also replace expiring hardware with ViewSonic’s All in One solution.

“As our other things die and we buy new ones, we’re going with the All in One ViewSonic,” says Mauser, Computer Applications Coordinator for the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University. “We’re in that migration process. We wanted to do as much green as possible.”

Mauser says FAU originally started replacing its computer towers with thin clients, but their output wasn’t delivering users’ needs.

“At that time, we started with HP thin clients, and we quickly realized the thin clients were not sufficient enough to handle the load we needed,” he says. “We started moving over to zero clients…and that was a major change for us. [It was] the simplicity of management, no matter who you’re using, what zero client you’re using, there’s one management portal that manages every companies’ zero clients, which is fantastic.”

Mauser says the zero clients were pushed into all of the university’s labs, and are moving into other campus spaces. He says there are currently about 100 zero clients in the labs, and 320 throughout the whole school.

Mauser also says that zero clients have drastically reduced FAU’s energy consumption, and decreased its heat signature.

“A normal desktop sitting there takes up a lot of energy,” he says. “The zero clients pretty much average somewhere around five watts, which is pretty tiny compared to a normal computer. Now, all the labs are not generating all that extra heat from the computers. The zero clients are low wattage, even at max usage. Per room, we’ve decreased our heat signature immensely.”

Erik Willey, Product Marketing Director for ViewSonic says because zero clients use minimal wattage to run, schools like FAU can save big on electricity costs.

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