ZeeTim OS repurposed existing PCs alongside 10ZiG endpoints under central management, cutting refresh cost by 61%.

The problem

Most organisations approaching a thin-client project assume it begins with buying thin clients. That assumption is what makes the business case difficult: the capital cost of replacing several thousand endpoints at once is usually enough to defer the project entirely.

But the existing estate is rarely broken. It is running an ageing operating system, carrying local data, and costing too much to manage — none of which requires new hardware to fix.

What we deployed

A mixed approach, which is the point of this deployment:

  • Repurposed PCs. ZeeTim’s endpoint OS converts existing x86 machines into hardened, centrally managed thin clients. The hardware stays; the operating system, management model and security posture all change.
  • New 10ZiG endpoints where devices genuinely needed replacing — managed from the same console as the converted units, so the estate stays uniform.

That single management plane is what makes a hybrid estate workable. Without it, you have two populations to administer and the saving is eaten by operational overhead.

Outcome

  • 3,600 endpoints under central management
  • 61% reduction in refresh cost versus full hardware replacement
  • Zero on-site visits required for endpoint management

Why it matters beyond this deployment

The 61% figure is not a discount — it is the difference between replacing an estate and converting one. For organisations with large endpoint populations and constrained capital budgets, that gap is often what determines whether the project happens at all.

The trade-off is worth thinking through properly: we cover when each option wins in Thin client refresh: lease, buy, or repurpose?

The same approach at larger scale, with new hardware throughout, is in our UAE federal entity deployment. For the education version of this problem — labs that change purpose by the day — see VDI for education.

To find out which split makes sense for your estate, start with a free EUC assessment.