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> This is how IT worked 40+ years ago: It is also how it worked 20-10 years ago: it was called Terminal Services. And then it was neglected because next shiny

> This is how IT worked 40+ years ago: It is also how it worked 20-10 years ago: it was called Terminal Services. And then it was neglected because next shiny thing: VDI. The thing is, one big server for a hundred office users doesn't cost much, because they are sharing the RAM. But with VDI you need at least 100 x 4Gb memory and that means you need way more than one server. And some SAN, because only SAN with fast drive can survive the morning boot storm. Oh, by the way, here are two FC SAN switches for your HA storage fabric, because you really want paths to the SAN be redundant. But anyway, local installs are not bringing revenue constantly. But renting the services do. This was perfectly clear with AzureAD and Exchange 365.

ChainOfFools 3y ago
Not dead yet, my consulting business is almost entirely built around provisioning terminal servers as small private cloud managed systems for companies with niche business requirements. Not sure how much longer the model is going to work because eventually I suspect Microsoft will simply kill off on-prem terminal services all together or make it completely uncompetitive with their own azure / Office 365 combination. But the surfeit of stupendously powerful white box server platforms and the remarkably efficient way that a terminal server conserves memory usage across sessions compared to containers or vdi or anything else, absolutely outperforms almost every other solution in the SMB space, in terms of how each support engineer can scale to 100 or more end users across a half dozen completely unrelated organizations. I'm surprised how underrepresented this business model is these days.
- justsomehnguy 3y ago
  > I'm surprised how underrepresented this business model is these days. VARs are living on %% of the sale. > Not dead yet Yep, but only yet.
hinkley 3y ago
This cycle of alternating didn’t start 40 years ago, which would be 1983. We have been cycling between decentralization and centralization since at least the 1970’s. Because they both suck, either side “winning” is worse than staying in the middle. But we only like pendulum swinging in this industry so nobody stops as the bottom of the arc.

ChainOfFools 3y ago

Not dead yet, my consulting business is almost entirely built around provisioning terminal servers as small private cloud managed systems for companies with niche business requirements. Not sure how much longer the model is going to work because eventually I suspect Microsoft will simply kill off on-prem terminal services all together or make it completely uncompetitive with their own azure / Office 365 combination. But the surfeit of stupendously powerful white box server platforms and the remarkably efficient way that a terminal server conserves memory usage across sessions compared to containers or vdi or anything else, absolutely outperforms almost every other solution in the SMB space, in terms of how each support engineer can scale to 100 or more end users across a half dozen completely unrelated organizations. I'm surprised how underrepresented this business model is these days.

justsomehnguy 3y ago
> I'm surprised how underrepresented this business model is these days. VARs are living on %% of the sale. > Not dead yet Yep, but only yet.

hinkley 3y ago

This cycle of alternating didn’t start 40 years ago, which would be 1983. We have been cycling between decentralization and centralization since at least the 1970’s. Because they both suck, either side “winning” is worse than staying in the middle. But we only like pendulum swinging in this industry so nobody stops as the bottom of the arc.