Windows 8 presents a big and mostly neglected opportunity for the IT infrastructure community: improved support for ARM thin clients, via the Windows Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) v8.0 (which is also available for Windows 7 SP1).
Despite the rather bad rap Windows 8 has received from some business-minded reviewers (in my mind somewhat unfairly), Windows 8 ARM thin clients offer price, power, and compatibility upsides that every IT purchaser worth its salt should be watching intently.
Over the last few years, the biggest players in the server industry -- Dell, HP, and IBM -- have all released thin clients priced around $250 USD per unit for low-end models to $650 USD for higher-end models. The idea of a thin client is to use virtualization to cut discrete hardware costs by ditching the traditional “fat” (and expensive) desktop client. In the thin-client scheme, the majority of storage and processing is handled by the server back-end, allowing for less-powerful, but far cheaper, client machines.
With Windows 8/Windows 7 SP1, Microsoft ups the ante on the software side with improved RemoteFX technology and peripherals support. Meanwhile, on the hardware side, an equally critical low-cost thin client revolution is occurring -- the arrival of ARM thin clients.
This is a big deal because ARM processors are among the cheapest in the industry, while being powerful enough for basic workloads and highly energy efficient -- all attributes perfectly suited for a thin client.
To compare the price of a potential x86 thin-client chip versus an ARM alternative, consider the dual-core Intel N2600 Atom (x86; 1.6GHz) cost of approximately $42 per 1K unit at launch last holiday season. Now consider that a 1.3GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 (ARM; 1.3GHz) reportedly can be purchased in bulk for only $21 USD -- around half the cost.
Unsurprisingly, Dell (via Wyse) and HP have already announced upcoming thin clients based on ARM. IBM is keeping tight lipped, but given its deep software commitment to thin clients, it’s likely IBM may join the party as well. Even if IBM chooses not to partake in the hardware side, IBM is a key software partner of Dell’s Wyse, providing VoIP and other thin client technologies for the platform.
While Windows’ RDP is by no means the only thin-client-aimed remote desktop technology out there, the fact that it’s built on Windows significantly reduces applications compatibility concerns versus competitive Linux-based solutions, making it easier for business leaders to embrace the thin client. Now the hardware makers are adding an extra incentive to make the thin-client switch -- the availability of cheap ARM clients.
And that availability adds one more peripheral benefit -- competition. Intel has long dominated thin-client sales, so there’s been little price pressure, other than the base incentive for Intel to price the devices low enough to create a new market. With the arrival of ARM, Intel will surely be forced to bring its A-game.
Thus, expect Fall 2012-Winter 2013 to be a great time to consider testing the thin-client waters. I advise you to look at the upcoming ARM thin client lineup and see for yourself whether you can use this burgeoning new enterprise device form factor to cut your company’s discrete hardware costs.
@Alton The graphics card is typically just an integrated multi-core GPU on the system-on-a-chip die. I believe Intel uses Imagination Technologies' IP cores in its latest Atoms and then with ARM chips it depends on which one you're talking about. Most use Imagination Technologies IP cores, but NVIDIA uses its own cores, based on pared down GeForce.
Regardless, they should be sufficient to handle the video stream and display the interface in acceptable resolution to the user.
@jabailo
Good point about WHDMI. I think the primary reason to use an ethernet LAN instead, though is cost. Not quite sure how much it would cost to wire an entire large deployment of thin clients with HDMI, but my guess would be that it would be more expensive than ethernet.
I could see it eventually replacing ethernet for virtualization, though, if costs allow.
"Windows 8 presents a big and mostly neglected opportunity for the IT infrastructure community" :
I think it is early to jump to that conclusion. Windows 8 users still have time to discover all the opportunity that the new OS can bring to the IT infrastructure community. Also, users need time to understand the benefits and the disavantages of a Windows 8 migration.
Thanks Jason. Latency seems to be less of an issue with text-based applications, which would be common for many remote workers. Those using engineering apps like CAD probably would be working on something more than even a desktop computer; a small Unix machine, for instance, so the use of a thin client wouldn't be a factor anyway.
I believe BYOD options can happily coexist with thin clients, as they fill different niches. Many companies want to provide their user with a company-owned workstation (desktop). Thin clients offer a cheap way of doing that. BYOD, meanwhile gives privileged employees (sometimes just executives, other times general staff, as well) the ability to bring their own laptops/tablets/phones onto the network and work on their favorite device(s).
In many ways BYOD actually improves the thin client value equation, in my opinion, as if some percent of employees do not frequently use their workstation (in lieu of their own device), then you certainly want to try to minimize workstation costs.
As for remote thin clients, there are latency issues to consider there. Thin clients generally rely on remote rendering, which can cause latency issues. However, in most use cases I would say its feasible with today's technology.
I have developer colleagues who regularly use Linux-based RDPs to code and debug remotely on remote machines. In that use-case, the laptop is essentially behaving analagously to the thin-client, while the home workstation is mirroring the functionality of the backend server. There's a bit of slowness at times, but in general the experience appears surprisingly adequate.
Given that success, I see remote thin-client deployments (with the backend serving at a central headquarters or data center type location) as being perfectly fine for the majority of business -- the only place you would run into trouble is if you're doing some sort of high-framerate application like CAD or video editing.
My question is whether thin clients will coexist with BYOD in enterprises. And to what extent will thin clients only work on the internal, headquarters network? Will thin clients be as popular in remote sites as mobile devices?
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