Thin Is In

Computerworld - None dare call thin-client computing a revolution. But putting applications and data on servers for access from thin-client devices has a certain logic that harkens back to the days when mainframes that connected to terminals were king.

The thin-client design makes sense fundamentally, according to information technology managers surveyed recently by Computerworld. Businesses are increasingly resorting to thin clients, IT managers say, to cut costs, relieve management headaches, ease software upgrades and bolster security.

Getting over user objections is the biggest downside, but it's easy once users see that they can get all the computing power they really need from thin clients, IT managers say. Of course, thin clients aren't as valuable to remote workers who are often disconnected from a network.

With a weight of around 10 lb. and an up-front cost of $400 to $1,000, thin-client desktops average half the weight and cost of traditional PCs, analysts say. But thin clients are really called "thin" because they provide access to applications and data residing on host servers and generally have no CD-ROM drives or even hard-disk drives, analysts say.

A Computerworld telephone survey conducted April 19 to 24 found that 35% of 169 businesses were using thin clients, which include Windows-based terminals, network computers and a new category of thin PCs that analysts describe as low-cost computers that eliminate some access bays, such as the $499 iPaq from Compaq Computer Corp. Another 22% of those surveyed plan to install such devices in the future.

Worldwide shipments of Windows-based terminals and network computers nearly doubled from 370,000 in 1998 to 700,000 in 1999, with an annual growth of 66% expected in the next five years, according to International Data Corp. (IDC) in Framingham, Mass. Those forecasts don't include handheld computers, smart phones or even those new thin PCs that several large vendors are hyping.

Yet thin clients are still a small part of the overall market. There were 113 million desktop PCs and nearly 20 million notebook PCs sold worldwide last year, IDC said.

"If you look at the big picture, you save so much on deployment and maintenance costs that it makes [a server-based design] worthwhile," says Alton Hall, a senior network engineer at Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Md. "There's a lot of reasons to go this way."

Full Circle

Business computing has evolved almost full circle with thin clients. Initially, mainframes contained the processing power and were connected to terminals. Later, processing was shared among powerful desktop PCs and servers. Now, processing is shifting to centralized servers that reach out to thin clients.

Today's thin clients differ from the old terminals mainly because they have Windows or similar graphical interfaces rather than text-based screens. Some new terminals allow Web-browsing functions as well, and some even have hard drives used to cache data. However, if the hard drive is launching applications and storing data, purists say it's really a PC.