Evaluations
Univesrity of Pardubice
The supplier, Stickfish, s. r. o., approached us with a presentation of future development of desktop solutions with regard to energy consumption, but more importantly, central administration and maintenance. Stickfish appeared to be an expert in the area of desktop solutions built on the Sun Ray terminals. As there already is a classroom within the faculty equipped with the Sun Ray clients, we were looking for an efficient desktop solution for the user's desktop. Because open source solutions undeniably belong to the academic ground, we had gone through a few tests of the Sun Java Desktop, GNOME and other desktops. Given the server equipment of the classroom, the original solution from Sun did not suit us very well, especially with regard to system requirements for server resources. We also requested a unified central user administration because students change classrooms very frequently and different tools are used for teaching different subjects. Changes to configuration and parameters burden classroom staff beyond regular classwork. For this reason we found Raydesk a suitable solution fulfilling our unique requirements, and we were surprised to learn such product was available on the market. Implementation itself went smoothly thanks to a preparation of a test pilot. Pilot operation also included connection to the MS Active Directory central identities management. Stickfish was able to handle this requirement as well before the seamless transition to live operation. Mgr. Tomáš Hudec Department of Information Technologies, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
ČEPS, a.s.
When deploying a new dispatcher control system based on the QNX 6.3 platform, we had to find a solution for ensuring access to the control system without compromising the realtime operation of SDŘS while adhering to the strict ČEPS safety standards. Besides departments responsible for administration and development of the SDŘS, other ČEPS technical departments need access to the system. These include the department for preparation of transmission and system services, department for evaluation and analysis, department for accounting of foreign exchanges, etc. A strict separation from common IT infrastructure was requested. It would have been too costly to install a native QNX workstation for every worker; both because of the price of the new hardware and the cost of building a new internal QNX network connecting all users. The decision to utilise the proven Sun Ray network for terminal connection that was used in the old dispatcher control system faced a roadblock because of incompatibility with the new QNX 6.3 operating system. On account of positive references about the Stickfish Raydesk Enterprise Desktop, the Stickfish company was approached. Stickfish designed a custom solution for us and, in cooperation with the supplier of SDŘS, delivered the entire network, including software modifications of the PHINX connector which no other company was able to do, and the requested multiple monitor workplaces for developers. The supplied solution fully satisfies our requirements for work with a remote graphical connection, and fulfills our security requirements for the use of our current IT infrastructure. Ing. Bohuslav Podroužek SDŘS project manager
Scientific Grid for Wood Science Institute at Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno
Stickfish, s.r.o provided us with exceptional services both when designing a solution and then implementing it. We would especially like to acknowledge their patience when dealing with the academic environment and its traditional vagaries which forced all participating parties to continually adapt the proposed solutions to new and new conditions of the university's unstable environment. The company's representatives greatly contributed to a revolutionary design of a hybrid terminal structure that should fulfill demanding requests of HPC on one side and regular needs of administrative workers on the other side. I would like to thank all employees of Stickfish who participated in the project's solution and took part in creating a new infrastructure at the Faculty of Forestry at the Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno. Ing. Petr Koňas, Ph.D. Supercomputer centre administrator at FWF MUAF
The State Environmental Fund
SFŽP's cooperation with Stickfish, s.r.o. has begun at a time when the SFŽP was starting its preparations for accepting applications for drawing on European funds. Even though our IT department had not been partial to the world of open source and Unix at the beginning, Stickfish succeeded in presenting itself as a flexible organisation that could meet our requirements in all aspects. After one year of cooperation they are beginning to get us to believe that solutions such as terminals, clusters, and Sun server service had not been just phrases or marketing tricks. We believe that in a short period of time our ideas about an optimum state of our Unux infrastructure will have been realised. Pavel Slípek, deputy The State Environmental Fund of the Czech Republic
Occupational Safety Research Institute
In 2006 the Occupational Safety Research Institute began to look for a solution for a project by the European Social Funds (ESF) called “Contact place for safety and protection of health at work in the Prague region”. This project required the creation of a network of information terminals/kiosks connected through the Internet to the central terminal server located at VÚBP. A terminal solution based on a server and thin clients by Sun Microsystems has been chosen as a technology solution for the information infrastructure. Raydesk by Stickfish has been chosen for the graphical user interface of the thin clients. This solution has been primarily chosen because of its low bandwidth requirements, easy and straightforward configuration, stable operation, etc. The solution provided us with a quality front-end for end users that allowed for the creation of different user profiles with the possibility of individual configurations on terminal clients. Among its advantages was also centralised administration from one web console. By choosing this solution we were able to lower our TCO which is a big advantage over workstations based on classical desktop computers. Cooperation with Stickfish was very professional. Implementation throughout the network proceeded without any complications and over a very short period of time. Overall, we are very satisfied with the solution and the supplier's approach. Oldřich Kolínský IT manager VÚBP
