SCA chooses ThinLinc!

SCA – Centralization using ThinLinc

SCA started a project aiming to centralize the production application Plain. The goal of this project was to recude the costs and the amount of administration for each instance of Plain. Today all Plain installations are scattered over the world; the aim is to centralize as many instances of Plain as possible to a central server in Gothenburg without losing functionality. This will lower the cost for running Plain considerably. In order to achieve this result, they elected to use the terminal server solution ThinLinc.

Plain – A business critical production application

Plain is a very central application in the production of SCA. Today there are 22 separate servers in 22 places around the world. The system has 800 cuncurrent users, it is integrated with Oracle and SAP and there are 22 different backup stations. From the beginning, Plain ran in a HP-UX environment. The new Plain configuration consists of a central server cluster and a central ThinLinc cluster. ”Thanks to this we can use one backup station, one tape robot, and centralize software licenses. Changes, maintenance work and administration takes place in a single place, which leads to great savings in time and capital”, says Jan Gustavsson.

Big  advantages with ThinLinc

”ThinLinc as system can be scaled very well, you can easily upgrade the number of clients without having to do difficult re-installations. It is more pure in its architecture and has a very high degree of security compared to the competitors”, says Jan. ”In the project we tested both Citrix and Mirosoft Terminal Server. ThinLinc's functionality came out good with its load balancing and the high availability. Price wise, ThinLinc is way below the competitors”, Jan continues.

Integration with Active Directory (AD)

”One of the reasons we chose ThinLinc is its excellent integration with Microsoft's Active Directory. With Active Directory we set all rights for the users in SCA:s network. Today SCA:s Active Directory environment consists of 35.000 units. We have 25.000 end users in 50 countries, spread out over 600 places. We have more than 9,5 million remote connections per month”, says Jan. ”The stability of ThinLinc enables us to introduce it into our existing environment without any problems”, Jan states.

Positive response

”Today we can open up a new factory with Plain users in 2 days, instead of 2-3 months as was the case earlier. This brings enormous advantages, the time to market is no problem today! There have been no complaints form the users, only positive response with the introduction of ThinLinc. We haven't had a single production stop since the project started this January”, says Jan. ”We have had a number of spinoff effects: Factories which didn't have access to Plain before want to join the project when they see what can be achieved with ThinLinc. ThinLinc manages to publish applications on a very low bandwidth, like the case of our factory in Poland”, Jan continues.

”The total calculation with ThinLinc means we reach pay-off in the  project after 6 months”, Jan concludes.

For more information, contact:
Daniel Moosberg, Marketing Director, Cendio AB
Phone: +46 (0)13 290 859, e-mail: daniel.moosberg@cendio.com

Jan Gustavsson, IT Manager Server Infrastructure, SCA Hygiene Products AB
Phone: +46 (0)520 659 000, e-mail: jan.gustavsson@sca.com

About Cendio AB
Cendio develops ThinLinc, a terminal server solution, which offers flexible and secure solutions for Server Based Computing. ThinLinc is a product for managing workplaces with Server Based Computing and for centralizing computing power in an organization. ThinLinc is used to centralize applications through the use of thin clients.

ThinLinc is a fast and versatile terminal server system. It is based on open protocols, such as TightVNC and SSH. The ThinLinc server is run on Linux or Solaris, and can be used to distribute Linux/Unix desktops to thin clients. The system also supports additional application servers, such as Windows Terminal Server. This makes it possible to mix applications from different platforms on the same desktop. ThinLinc supports redirection of sound, local printers, hard drives and serial ports, on top of SSH. Clients are available for Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

About SCA
SCA is an international paper company which produces hygiene products, packaging solutions and paper materials for the paper industry. The main markets are Europe and North America. They also have a strong footing in Latin America and Asia. SCA has about 53.000 employees in 50 countries. In the last annual report they reached an annual turn-around of about 90 billion SEK. SCA is registered with the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and can also be traded with in the stock exchanges in London and New York.