Is The Rikomagic MK802 iv The Future Of Business Computing?
The Rikomagic MK802 IV
The Answer To Rising Computer Costs
I believe that Android mini computers, like the Rikomagic MK802, can very well be the future of computing for business. The current trend in business, now more than ever, it to cut costs and reduce the overall TCO, or Total Cost Of Ownership. IT budgets have been cut year after year, and the mini pc can play a roll in answering this need to reduce costs.
Let’s go over the benefits of all in one pcs, like the Rikomagic MK802 series of micropc:
- The Rikomagic MK802 iv is very inexpensive – about $500 less expensive than the typical office workstation.
- You can connect it to a standard monitor, keyboard and mouse.
- Similar to the standard office workstation pc configuration.
- This is a Fanless PC – that makes it very quiet.
- The Rikomagic MK802 iv takes up much less power.
- With no moving parts, this minipc is lower maintenance.
- How much is uptime and the increased productivity worth?
- You can use the Rikomagic MK802 iv as a Thin Client!
There are many more benefits, but the last one is very important, and where this all inclusive pc can shine. You can leverage remote control thin client software on this minipc, and have a standard windows desktop for your end users.
Technology like this is already being used in many corporate infrastructures. Software like Citrix, 2X, Remote Desktop can make Windows software appear to run on just about any device, including cell phones and, yes, the Rikomagic MK802 mini pc. While I don’t believe that office workers can be easily productive running windows apps on a cell phone, the beauty of the mini pc tv dongle style computer is that it can be hooked up to a standard PC monitor, with a standard Mouse and Keyboard and the end user’s experience wouldn’t be much different than it is now.
Here is a video of a gentleman demonstrating what I am talking about.
The way this technology works, is that the programs are running on a windows server, and only the screen shots, mouse clicks and keyboard strokes are sent back and forth over the network. The applications look like they are running on the Rikomagic MK802 iv, but they are really running on a Windows server.
You may say, “What good is that! I still need Windows servers!” Think about this for a second…
Let’s say you had 1000 employees, each with a Rikomagic MK802 iv mini pc, connected as I have described. You just saved about $500,000 in hardware costs. Hardware that will not break down as quickly as standard workstations.
You will need to incur the costs of the servers that are running Windows and Citrix or 2x, and we can say that perhaps you want 10 servers in this example. The software is installed on the Servers, and the clients with the Rikomagic mini pc computers will connect to the servers in different sessions. The client connections from your workforce that are using the MK802 style computers will be load balanced between the servers, giving you redundancy.
Now, for some other cost savings that you may not be thinking about, using the Rikomagic mini pc in this way. Imagine having to install new software or upgrade old software. Now, you only have to do these things on the 10 servers. In a conventional office, you would have to touch 1000 computers! Ahhh, now you are starting to see how a mini pc, like the Rikomagic MK802 iv can save a company a lot of money, increase uptime and productivity.
Even if I used software to push the applications updates to the 1000 computers, that would be something else I would of had to manage, and dealing with the failure to update correctly would require a team of folks to visit the workstations anyway.
All of these issues go away, using the thin client method. If you were to throw into the mix that many of these pcs may be in offices in different geographic locations, and the time it would have required to travel to each location.
Another benefit in using this Android mini computer as a tv dongle is for presentations in larger meetings. If there is a projector or big screen tv in your meeting room, you can easily hook up the Rikomagic MK802 iv to it, and host your meeting with this multimedia pc.
I hope this article gives you something to think about. I believe devices like the Rikomagic MK802 iv can be instrumental in lowering the operating costs of IT for your business.