Through the implementation of PC Blades, Sagent Advisors has experienced superior PC availability, reduced IT admin costs, and eliminated the traditional challenges associated with PC install, moves, adds, and changes. The ClearCube solution was installed by ideaBOX, a systems integrator that remotely manages and troubleshoots PCs for the financial services industry, through PC Blade architecture.

Sagent Advisors Inc. pulled together the top M&A minds from companies that include UBS, CSFB, Citibank and Merrill Lynch. As a fast-growing financial firm in New York City, they need to react quickly to changing markets, new client requirements, and rapidly evolving business conditions. That includes being able to install, move, add, and change PC resources without impacting productivity, data integrity, or service to its clients.

"With ideaBOX and ClearCube PC Blades, we can separate ourselves from much of the burden of PC management and do what we do best-serving our clients and providing them with informed strategic financial advice," said Scott Kaplan, chief administrative officer for Sagent Advisors.

With significant pressure on systems integrators to drive down costs, ideaBOX has been using PC Blades from ClearCube to remotely manage and troubleshoot PCs for its clients. After examining a number of technology options, ideaBOX chose ClearCube PC Blades based on three key things - constant uptime, ease of administration, and minimal training. With ClearCube, ideaBOX can provide the highest quality solutions to end users with lower operational costs.

"ClearCube was the first company I saw that had a clear advantage in setting up and managing PC networks," said James Oliverio, founder and CEO of ideaBOX. "The ClearCube PC Blade solution is definitely the future of business PCs."

ClearCube has taken the traditional workstation off the end user's desk and replaced it with a small user port that is about the size of a paperback book. The user ports are connected via the existing cable infrastructure to PC Blades located in racks, in a central secure location. Each PC Blade contains all standard workstation components, including the latest Intel processors, memory, hard drives and video cards.

Using the ClearCube Management Suite, ideaBOX can remotely manage computers and users from anywhere in the world. This enables a "touchless IT" environment where IT managers can remotely manage and control global desktop deployments. For example, managers can virtualize Move/Add/Changes (MACs), remotely switch users to spare PC Blades in minutes if a PC Blade fails, monitor the health of a PC Blade and can be notified of problems and recover user data without ever leaving their desks.

"Sagent Advisors focuses solely on providing sound advice to its clients and ideaBOX ensures that technology does not stand in the way," Raj Shah, chief strategist for ClearCube. "Worldwide we are seeing more and more firms turn to outside providers to ensure the availability of internal systems."

Other ClearCube customers in the financial services industry include Morgan Stanley, BP Energy, Atlanta Business Bank, Bloomberg LP, Credit Suisse First Boston and The Chicago Board of Trade.