There's new activity in an old space, and the Internet has competitors shouldering each other in an effort to strike first.
The latest take on Internet access and client server computing has the mainframe world to thank for the original idea: “Dumb” terminals were the user interaction device in the beginning (20 years ago). Now, this technology’s latest incarnation is the “thin client.”
Given that this technique is so... well, old, what would motivate an organization to even consider it?
Saving money.
Thin-client vendors have traditionally made the case that you can save on both upfront capital costs and long-term maintenance and support by going with their solution. (More on that momentarily.)
But many users have not been thrilled with the thin-client approach, for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which has been performance compared to an average desktop PC. Thin clients are also at the mercy of the network and susceptible to outages.
On the upside, there are lots of benefits to adopting a thin-client architecture besides the initial low price. With bandwidth costs at all-time lows, network speed is no longer a factor when evaluating remote office solutions. Support and maintenance costs for small, dumb terminals are just a fraction of what it costs to support a typical PC.
The concept of a thin client can keep remote workers inside the firewall, protecting critical corporate computing assets, including proprietary or sensitive information. This works as well for staff as it does for C-level executives.
Thin clients aren’t just a throwback, either. Virtualized desktops represent one of the latest pushes toward a thin-client-type architecture adapted for the Web. Multiple companies have offerings in this space, including Citrix Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS), IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Red Hat Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT), and VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW), to name a few.
Virtualized desktops rely on high-end servers and fast storage to get the job done. Each user essentially has his or her own personal virtual machine along with its applications and custom settings. The programs typically run on a remote server but could execute on a local machine depending on the capabilities of the hardware.
Examples of how vendors are progressing in this space include VMware’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) VMware View product, which combines the vendor’s desktop and server virtualization experience to “deliver desktops as a managed service.” VMware’s Website boldly asserts that you can “reduce the total cost of desktop ownership by 50%.”
Citrix has a long history of remote desktops, including a tight partnership with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and a proprietary protocol, ICA (Independent Computing Architecture), running underneath. Citrix’s XenDesktop product is Citrix’s answer to VMware’s VDI offering.
These are just a few highlights of what is proving to be a robust market for thin clients. 2010 should prove to be the year for the rollout of a plethora of large-scale VDI solutions.
It remains to be seen which, if any one, solution will come out on top. But given that thin clients are all about cost savings, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see the open-source solutions give the proprietary bunch a run for their money.
I love the idea of a thin client that worked, married to a piece of hardware that worked. a colleague of mine just showed me his tiny new laptop. about 1/2" thick, very light, solid state drive, atom proc. etc. very slick. he said: and it runs windows 7. Oh. so when I want to quickly pop it open to check my web mail, I wait for win 7 to load, start the app, then check the mail. hmmm. think I'll hold onto my bberry.
who here has been responsible for Enterprise Desktop Services? in a mission-critical environment(eg. Wall St trading, etc). clear-cube, citrix, Vmware, etc, etc. did you trust it? did your users like it? oh, it was just your DR solution. right. plan B solution.
I love the idea of thin clients, and netbooks. but, I have seen every gyration over the past 15 years in this space. remember in the early 90's when IT put MS Office on the server for you instead of your PC? wasn't that awesome?
want to talk about real thin client innovation? check out OnLive.com ......
Yup, nothing new at all about thin clients. I remember saying the same thing back about '95 or '96 when Sun was touting its JavaStation (My firm was given a pre-production version to play with...it was about as awful as you can imagine). It seemed like nothing more than a prettied-up dumb terminal.
Things have changed since then: cheaper, vastly more powerful processors and RAM. Much better, cheaper and ubiquitous bandwidth. Finally, software innovations such as AJAX and the maturation of Java. So think clients should be set to take off, right? Maybe in the enterprise where they indeed make sense from the perspective of cost savings and simplified management of IT/network infrastructure, but for consumers I think there will always be a need for many to physically "own" something (even assuming they'll always be connected to the network). Even SaaS providers who have never printed and shipped CD-ROMs will often feature renders of packaged software on their Web sites to make their solutions more "real" to the consumer
Whats really funny about this technology is that it is NOT new! It's been around for years and has always been a great solution for client-server across long distances. All the current remote control software run on this same concept and IT WORKS. I have always been amazed that the technology has not been more prominent in the home computer world. It has it's place in business for obvious reasons, but it has never really hit the education market or the home user. With MS coming out with their subscription based Office, and Google Apps being online as well....all the computing power is on the server...all we need is fast connection and video display!
No surprise that is on the rise , but I am not sure it is "on the rise again", I feel like it is a first time.
google docs is a very close clone. But is not fully compatible with OFFICE 2007. It is not enough to look the same. Especially the Outlook component and the Visio components are missing completely.
- Precisely. Just as Open Office is not fully compatible with Office 2007. Not all of the licensed fonts are available for Open Office and Google Docs as they would be with the Microsoft Office suites, and small issues exist. You pointed out Visio components being missing - I noticed another one; inserting images into certain formatted forms.
In my job one of my company's phone carriers e-mailed my staff members a number porting form (LNP) to use with a partnered CLEC. When one of the employees opened it up in Open Office and had no issues filling in the blank text areas. When it required my signature file to be inserted, it wouldn't work. The only options they got was to type text. Insert Image was blanked out. In the end they stuck with entering a URL address to the signature image on our web-site. This was a rare case, but they will come up.
Office is a large money maker for Microsoft and I doubt very much they want full, 100% cross-compatibility while they hold a majority of the marketshare. Surprisingly, though, the newer docx format works seamlessly on Google Docs (but you need Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats for Open Office).
google docs is a very close clone. But is not fully compatible with OFFICE 2007. It is not enough to look the same. Especially the Outlook component and the Visio components are missing completely.
It is true that these thin clients do not have some of the features we are used to, wireless capability is a case in point (though a Chinese supplier is looking into adding this feature to their devices) but depending of the need and context of its use, these may or may not matter.
Also it low consumption on electricity, in most cases more that 85% less than a typical PC, is definitely a key attraction for such a device.
Though licensing may be an issue, there exists opensource alternatives to some software and again the need and its context would determine whether the thin client technology would work.
Thin clients have their "natural" environments and are not for every body or every need.
I have a rather large amount of experience with both the dumb terminls and a move from mainframe to Novell then to Microsoft client-server systems. And then an attempt to put Citrix and Microsoft Thin systems on line. The thin systems came in through a side door when a marketing genius met one of our Corp Execs on a bussiness trip. Andconvined him of the cost savings.
Things may have changed since then. But a thin client system with enough memory and a gig ethernet connection was $300.00 cheaper than a new PC. But, because we were a bulk buyer and a municipal government. The major cost which was software licensing, was and still remains the major cost. There are no java, ajax, lamp or html versions of MS Office. Sure they can be enabled to work inside a browser. But the license costs the same as one loaded on a PC.
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