The quad-core processor in Dell’s new low-end thin client will be able to handle demanding apps like Skype for Business, which strained the resources of earlier models with less powerful processors.
Dell has announced the Wyse 3040 thin client. While it becomes Dell’s lightest and smallest thin client, as the first entry-level Dell offering to boast an Intel-x86-based quad-core processor, it also becomes the most powerful.
“This is our new entry-level thin client,” said Jeff McNaught, Dell Cloud Client-Computing Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. “We have refreshed the entire Wyse brand, and this is the last one to refresh.”
The Wyse 3040 replaces the 3030 at the low end of the portfolio, but the 3030, like its predecessors, will continue to be available
“We will keep the 3030 available for a while, but our low end was getting fat,” McNaught said. “We have been offering the 3010, 3020, and 3030 – all of which have been superseded by a quadcore Intel processor. The 3010 is the original Wyse T10 and the 3020 is the original Wyse T20. They have been in the lineup for seven years. We won’t be keeping the 3030 for that long, but we will be keeping superseded lines for three years going forward.”
McNaught said the old lines still sell because customers typically want to keep with the same machines for three to five years – until their next complete refresh.
“Customers using VDI like people sitting at the same device whenever possible, because the whole idea is that people are able to sit at different desks,” he said.
“The Wyse 3040 is a big jump for us at the low end,” McNaught. “At the low end, customers have been affected in the past, when they go from having a database application as the core app to wanting the ability to add apps which make more demands on the system. Skype for Business really taxed the system for our earlier models. Adding those more demanding apps could force a refresh because the older models couldn’t do them as well, and couldn’t do multiple things as well. The quadcore processor gives so much headroom. It meets the low cost point needed here, but you can add on Skype for Business and other more strenuous apps. And while this is the biggest processor we have ever built in in this price range, it’s also smart, and uses 30 per cent less energy than its predecessor.”
The added oomph is important because many of the low end thin clients’ traditional markets have been adding apps which require more processing power.
“Education is a big market for this, and it has been making much more use of animation and video,” McNaught said. “For retail, this easily supports plug in scanners and bar code readers. Health care and finance also remain important markets.
The Wyse 3040 has a new slim line form factor which weighs just 0.24kg (0.53lbs), and the small size makes it easy to mount on the back of a monitor to reduce workplace clutter.
Out of the gate, the Wyse 3040 comes with the virus-resistant Wyse ThinOS software that is ultra-secure with no published APIs and therefore no attack surface. Starting in June 2017, customers will also be able to choose Wyse ThinLinux, a thin client-optimized software based on SUSE Linux that has been further hardened and optimized by Dell for thin client environments. It is compatible with all of the major virtualization software brokers including Citrix XenDesktop, Microsoft RDS and VMware Horizon.
The Wyse 3040 thin client includes two DisplayPort interfaces, support for dual digital display (2560×1600), wired and wireless 802.11ac options, and four USB ports – one of which is USB 3.0. It also offers a full suite of on-prem, off-prem and auto management software options for enterprise-level manageability that can scale to tens of thousands of devices.
The Wyse 3040 thin client is available globally now. Pricing starts at US$329.
