Say hello to Mezzo Computing. Yes, yes, we did make that up.

The Gist

Yes indeed, we have decided to coin a new term for something that has been with us all along.

Why?

Well, for many reasons, but mainly to popularise the idea and establish best practices for it.

Mezzo computing allows us to rethink our approach to clients and servers.

Quite a bit of money and resources to be saved with this approach dear reader. Surely something we can all get behind, no? Might even save enough to allow us to print out our budget with a larger font on smaller paper.

Sound good? Then let’s away and see where this gibberywhatsit may take us.

A Minor Flashback

Oh no, not another flashback…

Sorry dear reader, but these do help illuminate the bigger picture later on. Won’t you indulge us?

Most users understand the concept of clients (i.e. desktop, laptops) and servers. This is largely how things developed from the 1980s onwards.

Before that however, it was the norm to have ‘computers’ (the type that would occupy an entire floor) and ’terminals’. The long and short of which is that multiple users would interact with a single computer using a screen and keyboard. Interface units that couldn’t do much of anything without being connected to a larger computer.

Following the microcomputer revolution of the 1980s, it became the norm to have fairly capable stand-alone computers. This is what most people are used to today. A personal desktop or laptop computer, that connects to various services as needed.

The original concept of having very basic computers that depend entirely on larger machines elsewhere in the building never fully disappeared however. It remains quite common in big business and governments to this very day.

In the 80s and 90s the two concepts became known as ’thin clients’ and ‘fat clients’, with the latter referring to stand-alone computers. Not the most diplomatic of terms… We might have gone with ’emancipated’… ’empowered’… no, too peculiar and not 80s power-term minded enough. ‘Power’ client, yes that’s it.

We would have gone with ‘Power’ client vs ‘Tiny’ client perhaps. But then we wouldn’t have been able to use ‘Mezzo’, so we guess it all worked out in the end. Sounds almost happy doesn’t it? ‘Mezzo’. Nice one Digerty, if we do say so ourselves. Drat, we just did, didn’t we? Ahem, where were we…ah right, clients.

Both have their uses and specifics of course. Thin clients are cheap, but require a more expensive IT infrastructure. Fat clients are more expensive, but the accompanying infrastructure is cheaper. There’s a bit more to it, but you get the general idea.

But time has blurred the line between these opposites, and small but quite capable machines have emerged since. They’re actually cheaper than ‘official’ thin clients to boot. You might like to give our introduction to SBCs article a read to see what we mean.

Most of the required software has found its way to the realm of Free and Open Source as well, so there’s nothing holding us back but inspiration. And a tutorial perhaps, but we’ll get to that.

This brings us to our newly coined term: ‘Mezzo Computing’.

So what in the how-dare-you-waste-my-time-with-flashbacks is Mezzo Computing?

Ah, inquisitive and patient as always dear reader, the very reason we get along so well.

Mezzo Computing

Mezzo computing refers to using a machine that sits between the ’thin’ and ‘fat’ clients of yesteryear. It also refers to a carefully planned out balance between stand-alone and server-side computing. Balanced, like afternoon tea. Just enough dunking of biscuits to not have the tea become solid.

Now on to the juicy bits, or nitty-gritty if that’s your fancy.

So, how dare we ask for your time in reading up on this?

Well, as we alluded to earlier, Mezzo computing saves money, and quite a bit of it. Not only that, it reduces strain on the environment as well, if that’s something you’re concerned about.

Take a simple machine such as the Raspberry Pi. Ranging from 40 to 120 of your favourite Western coin, depending on the amount of memory the unit comes with. These little machines are capable of driving up to two 4K displays, while consuming only 2 watts at idle, or 12 watts under (hypothetical) full load.

They are able to run full desktops, office suites, and the like, as well as resource demanding web applications. Yes, yes they run Linux, but with a bit of creative tinkering they can run the other two types of desktop as well.

Wait, what?

Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more dear reader!

Back to the main point: Mezzo Computing. A Raspberry Pi or equivalent machine costs far less than a regular stand-alone computer, and uses far less energy. As a matter of fact, they actually cost less than most thin client computers as well.

Take Microsoft’s new ‘Windows 365 Link’ device, available for an insulting, er, ‘reasonable’ price of $349. For that you get a locked-down device with 8GB of memory, and the spiffing feature set of not being able to do anything at all without a Windows 365 subscription—and connection. It also comes with the fabulous option of being able to take extra tea breaks when the internet connection is down, or unstable.

Or…buy four Raspberry Pi 5 units with 8GB of memory, which can be configured the same way, or used as Mezzo Clients instead—for the same money. Unlike thin clients, mezzo clients can happily operate as a stand-alone computer for typical office tasks, software development and multimedia consumption.

What about Multimedia creation?

Yes, well that’s the kicker isn’t it? That’s where we go thin client mode. Instead of having servers handle either everything under the sun, or restricting their use to file and business application services, we can do a combo.

Picture an office with 20 desks and computers. Some people are dealing with customers and administration, some are doing graphics work and some are illegitimately playing Tetris. The only category where the mezzo clients would fall short would be the graphics department.

Now instead of deploying a few top tier servers to handle everything (thin client scenario) or a few small ones (fat client scenario) we deploy two categories:

1. Basic servers for file and (business) application services
2. One or more workstations for multimedia purposes

The majority of the office is now running on low powered, highly efficient machines. Those who need to access a resource demanding application such as Photoshop, Maya, AutoCAD or others can do so by streaming a virtual desktop to their mezzo client.

We can also take it one step further and deploy the mezzo clients without any disks, and have them boot from the network instead. Not only does this save money, it radically simplifies management. Need an extra workspace?

1. Unpack unit from box.
2. Put in case (no screws required).
3. Plug into power and network.

Everything else is handled server-side by the odd fellow that seems to always wear sandals and socks, regardless of season. Sorry to throw you under the bus like that Tim. Spirit of good natured fun? Ahem…moving on.

Infrastructure

If we decide to go the ’network boot’ route, then the most expensive and important component of our infrastructure will be our Network Attached Storage, or NAS. Well…either that or pile of swag left over from last year that hasn’t been shifted yet.

Why is that?

Well, because swag can be quite expensive dear reader… Ah, right, you meant the network storage part. Righto.

Well, as is our habit here at Digerty we try to take pages out of the book of uncle Enterprise, and try to apply those ideas. For mezzo computing we will borrow two solutions in particular.

The first is to separate data storage and computing power. This allows us to optimise both, separate concerns and save money while we’re at it. So we won’t just have our mezzo clients boot from the network, but our servers as well.

This makes both our clients and servers cheaper, less prone to hardware failure, and easier to maintain. It also makes software management considerably simpler, as each type of machine will run a fresh copy of the exact same software at every restart.

The second is going from a typical or ’traditional’ IT infrastructure, to a private cloud setup. This allows us to use any type of machine for our servers—including the same hardware we use for our mezzo clients. Instead of buying a small number of expensive servers, we can buy a much larger number of inexpensive little machines as well. With cloud computing most of our applications will run on many machines and the workload will be balanced between them.

We also gain a lot of flexibility as we can expand our computing power one small inexpensive machine at a time, instead of one big expensive unit at a time. A bit like ‘LEGO Technic’, vs regular ‘LEGO’ in terms of precision, but single lunch vs monthly groceries in price.

Thus the most expensive part of our infrastructure will be our data storage system or NAS, and in second place our network equipment. Provided the bulk of our workload is ’typical’ of course. Administration, sales, customer service and the like.

What about the workstations that stream media creation applications?

Ah right, well not everyone will need that in their organisation of course, but they too can be deployed in a very flexible way as well. They’ll be deployed without disks just like everything else in our network. In addition, they can be deployed either one relatively cheap unit at a time, or one powerful server at a time. It all depends on how many people need to access such applications. But even cheaper mini-units will be able to serve 3 to 4 users at a time for all but the most demanding video editing software.

The Takeaway

So, there we have it dear reader, our brief introduction to ‘Mezzo Computing’. A term we made up—for a very real IT infrastructure blueprint. With it, we gain surgical precision in the design of our IT stack, and more importantly its financing.

We deploy small units that are both more capable, and cheaper than even conventional thin clients, let alone desktops. We can use them for all typical workloads, and stream more demanding applications from our server department.

Our servers will be deployed using the same hardware. The only conventional hardware that remains is for our data storage system, and possibly the streaming of demanding applications. With the tremendous savings that we will gain, in terms of both investment and operation, we can upgrade our network and storage systems. In other words, we can all have an enterprise-grade infrastructure, for a fraction of the cost.

And quite possibly, we will all have something to brag about. If not the genius of our setup, then the fact that we have an IT department with smiles instead of frowns on their faces.

Oh, and lest we forget: we will explain how to deploy all this, in every meticulous detail, in our upcoming guides. Until then, dear reader.

Yours,

Digerty

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