OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works ("MMK" or “the Company”) has completed a pilot project aimed at creating a desktop visualisation system and switching consumers from regular personal computers to thin-clients in cooperation with the company CROC.

“Commissioning a workstation virtualisation system will allow us to evaluate in practice the potential advantages of this new infrastructure compared to traditional PCs. We expect that we will soon be able not only to decrease maintenance costs for computers at workplaces within the pilot project, but also to significantly decrease the number of requests to our technical support desk,” says head of MMK’s IT department Vadim Feoktistov.

Desktop virtualization involves computer technologies and infrastructure that make it possible to transfer all PC functions, such as theapplication calculations, storage of corporate and personal data, Windows settings and desktops, to a server’s virtual space. Therefore, software usage is independent from the computer’s hardware.

Thin-clients are specialised clientdevices with a significantly simplified hardware configuration compared to a traditional computer. Usually,these devicesoperate a light version of an operating system, do not have hard drives or any moving components, making it possible to decrease the size of a device to a small box. Since all application tasks, documents and files are stored on servers, with these new thin-clients connection only takes a few minutes.

The new system delivers a substantial cut in costs for workplace administration thanks to centralised programme systems, decreased expenditure and working hours on maintenance of workstations and clients’ software. At the same time, workstation virtualisation significantly increases the security of MMK’s data assets.

MMK’s project was implemented at sheet mill ¹11, since it needs to be implemented on a significant scale in order to deliver the desired results.A feasibility assessment of desktop virtualisation technologies will be carried out following the completion of this pilot project. This will make it possible toestimate the proportion of the company’s employees who will be connected to the new system. It is expected that results of the pilot projects will cover all facilities and organisations within the MMK Group.

Communications Department