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At Elina, a lot of our distributed enterprise customers have one or a few computers at their branch offices. How do we add value to these networks, without increasing the cost of hardware at each location? A good example is Trends-in-Vogue. With 60 salons, each having just one computer for the billing application, extra hardware for secure networking would have required doubling the capex at each store.

Zero hardware cost networking

Elina used virtualization technology to offer a "zero hardware cost" networking solution. While server virtualization has been a well accepted technology, Elina brings you the benefits of virtualization at a desktop level. At Trends-in-Vogue we installed the ENPAQ Unified Gateway on the branch computer, with Windows and PoS applications running on the same hardware as a virtual appliance. With the current performance and capacity of processors, there is enough head-room to run both the ENPAQ and Windows on the same computer.

Advantages

Virtualization brings in lots of advantages. Users see no change to the system operation and their familiar Windows interface and applications come up. Some key benefits:

• Applications can be Windows or Linux based
• No change to existing applications
• No operator retraining or migration issues
• Virtual OS configuration can be locked down
• Uniform environment across branch offices
• Applications and virtual OS can be remotely managed
• Automatic updates, backup, restore of data
• ENPAQ handles security and management tasks

How do I get this?

Simple! The hardware pre-requisites are Intel P4 (or better) or AMD Athlon (or better) processor, 512 MB RAM and 40 GB hard disk.

Once the VM is created, it can be installed at any number of locations. You would, of course, need a valid Windows license, for every Windows VM installation. The steps to follow are:

• Backup application and data from your Windows desktop
• Install ENPAQ Unified Gateway
• Install a Windows VM - Elina engineers will help you create a Windows VM. You will need a valid Windows license for this
• Elina engineers will help you install the Windows VM on the ENPAQ
• Boot up the PC - ENPAQ boots first and starts the Windows VM
• Restore your data, install required applications
• The ENPAQ VM is now ready for use

Virtualization by VMWare Player

Elina uses VMWare Player as the preferred virtualization platform. VMware, the market leader in virtualization infrastructure software, provides Elina with the most robust and widely deployed virtualization software available. Millions of users and more than 20,000 enterprise customers, including 100 of the Fortune 100 companies, use VMware software to virtualize their data centers.