Why It’s Good to Think Small

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Ryan has been a magazine and newspaper editor for 21 years, with the last 15 covering a variety of bases for CDW’s family of tech magazines. As Editor in Chief, he works on developing editorial strategy and is always on the lookout for new writing talent and sharing great stories with the IT world. In his spare time, Ryan enjoys spending time with his family, biking and obsessively following Iowa Hawkeye sports and Cubs baseball.

It’s very likely that the person who coined the phrase “good things come in small packages” was an eager woman waiting for her guy to slip a ring on her finger, rather than an IT manager looking for more compact and inexpensive technology options. Yet the sentiment can easily be applied to IT departments as businesses look for smaller form factors with more manageable price tags.

And although a tablet is no substitute for a diamond ring (at least not at my house), it is quickly becoming a technology of choice for companies of all sizes that need to support their mobile workers.

“We see [tablets] as great mobile devices that provide most of the functionality of desktops,” says Nick Volosin, ISS director of technical services at Kaweah Delta Health Care District in California, which offers iPads and other mobile devices to its physicians and employees.

For more about how businesses are using tablet computers and for a rundown on what’s available on the market, read “The Tug of the Tablet."

All or Nothing

While tablets are grabbing all the headlines, companies are finding that technologies such as zero clients and all-in-one computers are useful options at the desktop level.

Zero clients run in a virtual desktop infrastructure and have no moving parts, storage or software. Harvey Green III, assistant manager of information systems and technology at Smith Turf & Irrigation in Charlotte, N.C., says they provide cost savings and reliability through a centrally managed desktop environment. To learn more about zero-client devices, go to “Zero Complaints."

IT departments are also using all-in-one computers to consolidate hardware and add efficiencies. These devices provide ease of management because both the computer and monitor are combined into a single unit. That means the devices take up less space, and they also deliver cost savings and speed system setups.

For more on how businesses are taking advantage of the benefits offered by these devices, read “All for One."

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