Cascades Inc.,a $3.8 billion global company with more than 12,000 employees worldwide, has a major business unit, Québec-based Cascades Tissue Group, – which makes eco-friendly tissue products, paper towels and napkins for commercial, consumer and private- label customers – has initiated a green IT program. Cascades Tissue Group needed to centrally manage disparate IT assets and incorporate recent acquisitions.
Problem
A unit of Cascades Inc., the Tissue division – a leading supplier of paper products that produces green brands including Seventh Generation™ – has a broad base of computer users throughout 17 North American locations. Dany Briard, director of information technology, set out to make some big changes for the organization working with a small staff, and within an existing budget.
For this initiative to succeed, the new approach would have to be dependable, cost effective, centralized, and easy to update and maintain. The winning approach also had to align with the recycling leader’s values and commitment to “green” technology.
Security, mobility and energy conservation were critical requirements for the organization. These factors drove the team’s decision to move from a PC-based computing population to an ultra-thin client computing platform. The “one-user, one-PC” proposition is often inefficient and expensive to maintain. PCs sit idle for long periods of time, consuming electricity that adds to overhead costs. In addition, configuring a single computer could take up to eight hours.
“Between the wasted electricity and the time needed to manage a thousand PCs located across two countries, multiple time zones and two languages – we identified a major opportunity for improvement,” said Briard.
After evaluating a number of options, the Cascades team identified ultra-thin clients as the low power, zero-maintenance solution to replace traditional PCs, and chose Oracle’s Sun Ray™ platform. To address the requirements for mobility, Tadpole ultra-thin client notebooks from General Dynamic Itronix were introduced to the Tissue Group’s IT team.
Solution
The new IT plan called for a centralized infrastructure of servers and applications to streamline maintenance and reduce cost. As the IT team undertook implementing the switch to ultra-thin client computing, with the full support from the Tissue Groups’ corporate IT director, Mario Sylvain, the changeover began by swapping out older computers, servers, and storage devices.
According to Briard, “We were able to remove servers from remote locations, and with that, eliminate the maintenance contracts that supported them. There was a lot of money tied up in the old assets.”
The new ultra-thin client virtual desktop infrastructure, which incorporates industry standard protocols including VMware™ and Citrix, immediately met expectations and provided for a smooth transition for end users. For employees, the virtual desktop interface slashed training time because the ultra-thin clients looked and behaved like regular notebook computers. User experience and adoption is important to any IT initiative, and the Tadpole M1500 notebooks enable users to connect and get their work done wherever they are, in an environment that is familiar and comfortable.
Results
After Cascades acquired three mills in Ontario Province, near Toronto, it faced dual challenges of overhauling IT systems and training new employees. For one acquisition, it took just a matter of weeks to implement the new architecture.
“The first day, we went in with 20 Tadpole notebooks, and it made a difference. Now it is easy to activate a new user and to move information to new employees,” Briard explained.
With the switch to ultra-thin clients, Cascades performs software and security upgrades at the server level. For training, special workstations no longer take hours to set up. If employees leave the company, their work is transferred without downloading files.
Improved Services
Now, Cascades employees simply slide in SMART cards to a Tadpole notebook to gain access to a personalized desktop view. With WiFi hotspots across the Cascades facilities, more M1500s can be used with less support and infrastructure. Employees are freed from static workstations, making it easier for them to work together wherever the need arises.Tadpole also worked with Cascades to increase the number of Internet connections allowed under Sun’s architecture by a factor of two. Previously underused bandwidth is now available to whoever needs it.
When they finish using Tadpole notebooks, Cascades employees simply shut them off with the touch of a button. Employees can pick up exactly where they left off at the end of a previous session – e-mail, booking travel, conducting research, entering manufacturing results into a database – by inserting their SMART card and pushing a power button.
Today, a core team of four IT employees manage a thousand computing devices located at 17 facilities across North America. Team members Martin Arcand, Serge Leboeuf, Frederic Denomme-Labelle and Jack Ericson supported the design, infrastructure and implementation of the new IT plan.
“These guys all have a life after 5 p.m., and families and kids, and we make it work,” Briard said.
For more information on Tadpole Ultra-Thin clients, visit www.gdc4s.com/tadpole.
