Flagship capability
Jentu diskless infrastructure, designed and deployed
Jentu removes the hard drive from the endpoint. Workstations and servers boot their operating system from a central image over the network, and every restart returns the machine to a known good state.
How the pieces fit
SchematicProcessing still happens on the endpoint, so this is not virtual desktop infrastructure and it does not need a datacentre full of compute. The central server holds and streams the image. The workstation does the work.
We are a Jentu certified implementer. Our technicians design the image architecture, build the storage layer, migrate departments across and support the environment afterwards. Most of the value shows up in the years after the build, which is the part general IT providers tend to underestimate.
How it works
| Boot model | Network boot, disk block streaming over Ethernet |
|---|---|
| Processing | Local to the endpoint, not centralised |
| Throughput | 1 Gigabit networking delivers SSD class performance; 10 Gigabit typically exceeds NVMe |
| Endpoint storage | None required |
| Scope | Workstations, servers and IoT endpoints |
Detail
What the work involves
Golden images per department
Accounting, legal, engineering and front office each get a versioned image. Roll a change out once and it lands everywhere that image is used.
Clean on every restart
The operating system and application layers are read only. Changes made during a session are discarded at power off, so a machine comes up pristine.
User data kept separate
Documents and profiles map to revisioned network attached storage, so wiping the OS layer never touches the work.
Smaller attack surface
No local drive means the largest attack surface on the device is simply not there. A ransomware payload that cannot persist across a reboot has a very short life.
Patching that can be undone
Updates are applied centrally to the image. A bad patch is reverted by rolling back to the previous version rather than visiting every desk.
Longer hardware life
Storage failure is the most common reason a workstation gets retired. Remove the drive and machines stay in service considerably longer, drawing less power and less cooling.
Outcome
A Toronto sleep clinic ran on CDOC built diskless servers for more than twenty years. In that time they recorded no workstation failures and no viral compromise, and stopped managing weekly patching entirely.
For over 20 years, our clinic ran on custom servers by CDOC in one form or another. Since installation, the server has run flawlessly. Because the workstations do not require a hard drive, we have had no failures of our workstations, and no need to worry about viral attacks, hacking, drive crashes, operating system failures or weekly patching.
Related
Service catalogue
The individual services that sit underneath this work.
Computer network solutions
Your network touches every process in the business, so when it is slow or down, everything else is too.
Read moreComputer network setup
A network built properly the first time costs less than one repaired repeatedly.
Read moreComputer network repair
When the network is the backbone of the business, a fault is never just a technical problem.
Read moreComputer network support
Support works when the people answering know your environment already.
Read moreOn site computer repair
Some faults cannot be fixed down a wire. For those we come to you.
Read moreRemote technical support
Most issues can be resolved before anyone needs to travel.
Read moreQuestions
Common questions
What is Jentu and how does diskless computing work?
Does removing the hard drive slow the computers down?
What happens to malware on a diskless endpoint?
Where does user data live if there is no local drive?
Start with an infrastructure assessment
We look at what you are running now, where the risk sits and what it would take to simplify it. You get a written picture of your environment either way.