More firms switch to multi-seat computing

By Zoya Anna Thomas   |   Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 00:53 IST   |    26 Comments
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More firms switch to multi-seat computing
Bangalore: Cost cutting has become imperative for most organizations in the current economic scenario. In such a situation perhaps what people need is a technology that is cost effective. A new technology, called multi-seat computing enables around thirty people to share one PC with the help of software and an access device. This technology is slowly being adopted by organizations across various sectors like education, telecom, manufacturing and software industry in India. Providing the software and device are players like NComputing and Gotech India. As per a survey conducted by schoolofeducators.com, a group that provides school statistics in India, as of 2006, in about 16 lakh schools, the average availability of computers is only 13.43 percent. As a matter of fact it is schools that are now taking most of the initiative to shift from the traditional mode to multi-seat computing. In multi-seat computing each user's keyboard and mouse is connected to the access device, which in turn is connected to the master PC. This is a cost effective technology in terms of infrastructure, installation and maintenance. It does not affect the efficiency of the computer. Moreover multi-seat computing allows minimal power consumption. According to NComputing, their access devices use up only one watt of electricity as compared to the 120 watts dedicated to a normal PC. According to Manish Sharma, Vice President NComputing Asia-Pacific, the response to their product has been overwhelming. Sharma says, "The idea is to encourage educational institutions throughout the country to experience the high performance and significant cost savings that NComputing devices can deliver." The company has already delivered this technology to 5,000 government schools in Andhra Pradesh and many more private schools. Various government bodies too are adopting this technology. In fact the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) is one such client of NComputing. Mukesh Setia, member of the management committee of John F Kennedy Public School, a school that is using the NComputing software says, "We adopted this technology as we were keen on reducing costs and wanted to provide computer access to many students. We have 15 seats using this technology and the efficiency of the computer has not been affected in any way." Shranick Jain CEO, Gotech India, another player in this field says that he has been receiving enquiries about the product from all over India. Jain says, "We are targeting each and every person, institution and organization. I believe the future lies in this technology." His clients vary from schools in Mussoorie to auto part companies in Tamil Nadu. In fact, RailWire, an enterprise that focuses on broadband and VPN services recently tested the Gotech Thin client device. In this time of minimizing costs, private and government bodies, including educational institutions are finding multi-seat computing to be a boon.

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