Should I roll out Chrome OS?
Google’s lightweight operating system, and the devices that run it, could make serious savings for organisations of all sizes, explains Nik Rawlinson
Quite possibly – we explain why.
Chromebooks dominate US education, and by ABI Research’s calculations they will account for 7% of global notebook PC sales by 2021. They’re cheap, easy to maintain, run a long time on a single charge, and are close to malware-immune. Little wonder they’re winning converts well beyond the classroom.
Netflix customer support is a pure Chrome OS environment, Pinterest has installed Chromebox for Meetings in its conference rooms, and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham decided to roll out 2,000 Chromebooks and 500 Chromeboxes, rather than upgrading its existing PCs when Windows XP went end of life in April 2014.
If these big names have switched, should you?
The first Chromebooks shipped in 2011, and have since been joined by Chromeboxes and Chromebits – headless clients that connect to a keyboard, mouse and display – and a small number of all-in-ones. Booting into Chrome OS, they run all their applications online, so are as light on hardware as they are on the wallet.
“The range starts at about £150,” said Sam Winter, whose company, Cloud Technology Solutions, helps businesses transition to Chrome OS. “That gets you a device for working from the cloud.”
Winter admits that Chromebooks aren’t designed for designers – or developers – but claims “they’re perfect for using G Suite. Nowadays, everything is very focused on cloud, so to have a device that pushes that towards you is amazing. You can work offline, so long as you’re using the right app, like Google Docs, which can download a file to your Chromebook, store your changes locally and push them back to the cloud the next time you have Wi-Fi.”
G Suite, a version of Google’s consumer apps for enterprise, is charged by the seat. As well as extra storage, it includes the most serious challenger applications to Office 365. Google has supplied software-as-aservice for longer than Microsoft, and it shows. Chrome OS devices may be thin clients, but they’re underpinned by heavyweight applications – and the range is set to grow.
“We’re in the process of porting the Android Play Store so that it works on Chromebooks,” explained Michael Wyatt, Google’s head of EMEA for Chrome and Android for Enterprise. “As of a few weeks ago, every new Chromebook that hits the market will have the ability to run Android apps from the Play Store.” The implication is obvious: enterprises developing tailored in-house applications will
“Enterprises developing tailored in-house apps will soon be able to run them on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones”
soon be able to run them on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones for seamless multi-platform operation.
Enterprise-grade applications
Of course, not all organisations develop their own applications in-house, but even those wedded to traditional enterprise cornerstones are served by Chrome OS. Chrome RDP, Citrix XenApp and VMware each have solutions for accessing a Windows desktop using Chromebook, and the Borough of Barking and Dagenham used Citrix virtual desktop to access council applications when it first made the switch from Windows, before transitioning to new apps that run natively inside the browser.
“We ask a lot of questions from businesses that are looking to jump platforms,” Winter said. “They each have their own specific needs, so the first thing we do is figure out if they’re using any software for which there are alternative online solutions. Nine times out of ten there are.”
Indeed, the main objection Winter encounters is unfamiliarity with Google’s apps. “You can still use Office 365’s online applications, of course, but I’d always remind the customer
that these devices have been designed to work with G Suite, and I’d recommend giving it a go.”
Google’s Michael Wyatt picks up on research from PC Management, which found that 70% of US companies were looking to integrate some form of PC management going forward. “That inspired us to do our first public deal with VMware last month,” he said. “As a result of that, you’ll be able to manage all of your Chrome devices using VMware Workspace One, alongside [the existing] Chrome Management Console.
The web-based Management Console lets admins track Chrome assets, block-install apps, manage users and groups, and control user access. It has more than 200 features and policies, many of which give you one-click control over your users’ machines. With the platform diversifying, that’s a boon. Alongside Chromebooks, Chromebox and Chromebit, there are dedicated platforms for meeting rooms and classrooms: the recently announced Jamboard in the latter case. This could encourage corporates to quickly increase any initial investment.
Wyatt cites Toyota, which was “trying to put content onto screens in its showrooms to help sell cars. It wanted to push them out quickly, in a cost-effective way, so it used Asus Chromeboxes on TVs, and has so far deployed about 6,000 units in less than six months across Europe.”
Even the Cabinet Office is getting onboard, using Chromebits to provide digital signage.
Savings built in
The savings that can be made by switching to thin clients can be substantial. “The cost of deployment itself, enrolling the device and distributing it to users,” are benefits that Winter highlights, as well as “time to deployment, the amount of time you need to manage them and their security… for county councils, all of that resonates brilliantly with their reduced budgets.”
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham saved £200,000 on hardware when it moved away from Windows, and a further £200,000 on electricity costs thanks to the lower power consumption of the Chrome OS devices. It expected to make further savings on premises by taking advantage of the opportunity for staff to work anywhere with their new devices.
However, Winter warns against only considering Chromebooks at the lower-end of the range, even if they’ll only be running online apps.
“I get new customers coming to us who have had Chromebooks that they’ve not been happy with,” he explained. “They’ve been buying under-specced devices and expecting them to last three or four years: Chromebooks with 2GB of RAM that, after a lot of updates, are starting to struggle. You won’t find anything like that in the market now, so when I send them a new one to try, they fall back in love with them.”
His advice? “Steer clear of a 2GB RAM device and you’ll be fine.”
Other benefits are less obvious. For one thing, the very nature of thin clients makes them more secure. “They have verified boot, the operating system is always the right version, the code is unique… every internal security test we’ve done has come out positive,” said Google’s Wyatt, who believes that Chrome is the most secure operating system currently available. “In fact, we offer monetary rewards to any users who find an exploit because we stand by our security 100%. If we’re taking Chromebooks into education and enterprise, it’s something we’re taking very seriously and we’ve done
“There’s peace of mind that any hardware that ‘walks’ when a member of staff leaves won’t be carrying sensitive data with it”
a lot of work on it.”
As well as reducing the risk of data loss, thin clients are easier to share. Shift workers coming to the end of their stint can log out, safe in the knowledge that none of their data will be left onboard, and hand the device to whoever is taking over, therefore reducing the number of Chromebooks a business needs to buy for any given workforce. And, for those with a high staff turnover, there’s the added peace of mind of knowing that any hardware that “walks” when a member of staff leaves won’t be carrying sensitive data out with it.
You might not be ready to deploy Chrome OS in the same volume as a council or school, but the low cost of entry, and the ease with which they can be deployed, makes Chrome devices both easy and affordable to trial on a limited basis. They’re one of the few platforms that even small businesses can realistically test themselves, and buy on the basis of experience, rather than purely rely on advice they read in a magazine – however good that magazine happens to be!