Is Thin Computing Getting Thick?

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. Businesses are increasingly resorting to thin clients to cut costs, relieve management headaches, ease software upgrades, and bolster security, IT managers say.

With a weight of around 10 pounds and an up-front cost of $400 to $1000, 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.

Gaining Support

A Computerworld telephone survey conducted April 19 to 24 found that 35 percent of 169 businesses are 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. Another 22 percent 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 percent expected in the next five years, according to IDC.

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

Coming Full Circle

Business computing has evolved almost full circle with thin clients. Initially, mainframes contained the processing power, and terminals connected to them. 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.

Modern thin PCs such as the IPaq are considered the outgrowth of the network PCs introduced in 1997 by Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer, and Compaq. Those seem to have been spawned from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's notion of the network computer in 1995. But the network PC didn't catch on, analysts say.

Thin-client architecture has some downsides. The biggest problem mentioned in the Computerworld survey is user resistance to giving up control of fully functioning desktop PCs, an issue cited by 21 of 59 IT managers.