Am concluding this blog here, since professionally, I will not be focussing on this area anymore.
Thin Clients & Virtualization are in my eyes undoubtedly the future of computing - the host of new technologies emerging every month now from different companies all point in that direction. What will be interesting to see as this story unfolds is - who will be the GORILLA - and who will turn out to be the CHIMPANZEES as this tornado crosses the chasm of technology adoption and hits the main street.
From the moves being now made in the market - my guess is, hp will be a big player (witness the Neoware buyout, the blade server (Shorty) / blade PC story) unfolding. Microsoft - never one to be left out, will make a big play for sure (witness their buyout of Softgrid, their own work on virtual PC, virtualization softwares, the designing-in of many Citrix functionalities in their upcoming Longhorn server). The other biggie to be watched here will be IBM. Fasten up gents, the flight is just about taking off now.
Specifically around the "Client" being virtualized - the opportunity being thrown up is to get the next billion users onto the world wide web, using a virtualized setup or a thin client. For this set of users - "psychological obsolescense" be damned, its just a question of - "give me something that works - allows me to get onto the internet - and yes, which does not need to be maintained/ pampered"......"Did you say its not exactly a PC ?"....."Who cares ?"
If you are into IT hardware - watch this space very closely in the days to come.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Voices from the marketplace
Attached is link to an interview with David Angwin, Senior Marketing Manager for Wyse technologies, based in the UK.
http://www.thincomputing.net/content.php?article.27
Interesting interview, where he talks about how Wyse is moving away from being just a Thin Client vendor to a vendor that aims to cover more of the application delivery market space with innovative products and technologies. He also says : "Over the past 2 years we have seen more major deployments of thin clients; and new technologies from VMware, Citrix and Microsoft just accelerate that growth. To give a feel for thin client adoption: 1 in 7 desktop computers bought in 2007 in Western Europe will be a thin client".
Considering that markets in India have always closely followed whats happening in the West, this is a trend that’s definitely ON.
The interview also talks about how the scope of what can be done on thin clients is gradually increasing to encompass everything that can be done on a PC. He ends the interview talking about "zero clients" as against "thin clients" - a concept where the client device almost disappears.
http://www.thincomputing.net/content.php?article.27
Interesting interview, where he talks about how Wyse is moving away from being just a Thin Client vendor to a vendor that aims to cover more of the application delivery market space with innovative products and technologies. He also says : "Over the past 2 years we have seen more major deployments of thin clients; and new technologies from VMware, Citrix and Microsoft just accelerate that growth. To give a feel for thin client adoption: 1 in 7 desktop computers bought in 2007 in Western Europe will be a thin client".
Considering that markets in India have always closely followed whats happening in the West, this is a trend that’s definitely ON.
The interview also talks about how the scope of what can be done on thin clients is gradually increasing to encompass everything that can be done on a PC. He ends the interview talking about "zero clients" as against "thin clients" - a concept where the client device almost disappears.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
The Advent of "Green IT"
As in every other segment - environmental concerns are gradually gathering steam - even in IT hardware. So much so, that "Green IT" will be a key focus of Gartner's annual symposium, to be held at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre in Sydney from November 20-23, 2007.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;818170849
The implication is clear : "…...with the high level of political sensitivity surrounding green IT, Gartner believes its CIOs that need to take a leadership role in this area and demonstrate a degree of corporate responsibility". Expect more and more global companies to be talking this language.
One of the key products that help in achieving these GREEN objectives is Thin Clients. With their power consumption being at less than a tenth of PCs - the best way for most companies to show they care for the environment, will be to go in for thin clients.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;818170849
The implication is clear : "…...with the high level of political sensitivity surrounding green IT, Gartner believes its CIOs that need to take a leadership role in this area and demonstrate a degree of corporate responsibility". Expect more and more global companies to be talking this language.
One of the key products that help in achieving these GREEN objectives is Thin Clients. With their power consumption being at less than a tenth of PCs - the best way for most companies to show they care for the environment, will be to go in for thin clients.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Why Thin Clients Are Back In - Part III
This is the concluding part of the series by cio.com…..on "Why Thins back in".
http://www.searchcio.com.au/topics/article.asp?DocID=6100791&SiteID=19
In this final part, the article highlights a case study of Jetstar which deploys thin clients in airport terminals. We have a similar success story at Netaji Subhas Chandra Airport in Kolkatta which runs on our t5720 thin clients.
The article further highlights one key fall-out of this desktop virtualization : "The thin client and virtualisation revolution has also made it possible to finally realise the dot-com-era dreams of the Application Service Providers". The implication is software being offered increasingly as a service and not as a product. The article further highlights how thin clients have helped in maximising ROI for customers and most of all deliver "peace of mind". As it summarises : "The peace of mind offered by virtual PCs and thin clients might just be enough to justify their adoption without even doing the ROI calculations. When you add up all the advantages, thin must surely be the future for all end-user computing".
Get thinking.
http://www.searchcio.com.au/topics/article.asp?DocID=6100791&SiteID=19
In this final part, the article highlights a case study of Jetstar which deploys thin clients in airport terminals. We have a similar success story at Netaji Subhas Chandra Airport in Kolkatta which runs on our t5720 thin clients.
The article further highlights one key fall-out of this desktop virtualization : "The thin client and virtualisation revolution has also made it possible to finally realise the dot-com-era dreams of the Application Service Providers". The implication is software being offered increasingly as a service and not as a product. The article further highlights how thin clients have helped in maximising ROI for customers and most of all deliver "peace of mind". As it summarises : "The peace of mind offered by virtual PCs and thin clients might just be enough to justify their adoption without even doing the ROI calculations. When you add up all the advantages, thin must surely be the future for all end-user computing".
Get thinking.
Why Thin Clients Are Back In - Part II
This is in continuation of the series by cio.com…..on "Why Thins back in".
http://www.searchcio.com.au/topics/article.asp?DocID=6100790&SiteID=19
In this second part, the article talks about how "virtualization" technologies have made a change to thin client computing & how "virtualization" gives the flexibility to users to use various different operating systems like XPP, Vista - without upgrading their current user hardware or by using simple thin clients instead.
"The problem with the thin client approach before virtualisation was that there was some modification or compromise to the end user experience in some way or another. What you get with virtualisation is an uncompromised end user experience where for all intents and purposes it's exactly like having a desktop. You can change the screen, you can add your family photos, you can change the colours, do all of that, you just happen to have a thin client on the desk not a full desktop"
"From a hardware side different people will approach it differently," says Harapin. "For example if you have an existing desktop that's running Windows XP, you might want to run Windows Vista, but the hardware itself may not be adequate to support Vista. You can run a virtual client and use your existing physical desktop but stream Vista down to that old piece of hardware until it's time to replace it with a thin client, but nothing changes on the user end. So it is horses for courses and depends on the end user's environment"
Very interesting, do read.
http://www.searchcio.com.au/topics/article.asp?DocID=6100790&SiteID=19
In this second part, the article talks about how "virtualization" technologies have made a change to thin client computing & how "virtualization" gives the flexibility to users to use various different operating systems like XPP, Vista - without upgrading their current user hardware or by using simple thin clients instead.
"The problem with the thin client approach before virtualisation was that there was some modification or compromise to the end user experience in some way or another. What you get with virtualisation is an uncompromised end user experience where for all intents and purposes it's exactly like having a desktop. You can change the screen, you can add your family photos, you can change the colours, do all of that, you just happen to have a thin client on the desk not a full desktop"
"From a hardware side different people will approach it differently," says Harapin. "For example if you have an existing desktop that's running Windows XP, you might want to run Windows Vista, but the hardware itself may not be adequate to support Vista. You can run a virtual client and use your existing physical desktop but stream Vista down to that old piece of hardware until it's time to replace it with a thin client, but nothing changes on the user end. So it is horses for courses and depends on the end user's environment"
Very interesting, do read.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Why Thin Clients Are Back In - Part1
Heres a series starting by cio.com…..on "Why Thins back in".
http://www.searchcio.com.au/topics/article.asp?DocID=6100789&SiteID=19
In this first part, the article introduces a new paradigm in the way we think about thin computing, by saying : "I think even the word thin client, which I guess we're stuck with now because it's the start of the whole revolution, is a little bit of a misnomer because today thin client really refers to the thinness of the connection between the end point and the data centre. So that's what thin client today really means as opposed to the actual hardware that many people use"
What this really hints at is that the bigger question or perspective for IT managers is about : What data / applications do you want to reside locally - and how much of that do you want back in the datacenter. This could be from a policy point of view or security point of view or even from a government legislation point of view. The front end may be a conventional PC or laptop - but we might still be talking about thin computing.
We will continue to track thie series. Do read - this will increasingly be the burning question for IT managers while rolling out client devices.
http://www.searchcio.com.au/topics/article.asp?DocID=6100789&SiteID=19
In this first part, the article introduces a new paradigm in the way we think about thin computing, by saying : "I think even the word thin client, which I guess we're stuck with now because it's the start of the whole revolution, is a little bit of a misnomer because today thin client really refers to the thinness of the connection between the end point and the data centre. So that's what thin client today really means as opposed to the actual hardware that many people use"
What this really hints at is that the bigger question or perspective for IT managers is about : What data / applications do you want to reside locally - and how much of that do you want back in the datacenter. This could be from a policy point of view or security point of view or even from a government legislation point of view. The front end may be a conventional PC or laptop - but we might still be talking about thin computing.
We will continue to track thie series. Do read - this will increasingly be the burning question for IT managers while rolling out client devices.
Thin Clients = Less Head-aches
Heres an interesting write-up from a customer who has bought several brands of thin clients, and goes ga-ga about the convinience of hp thin clients - and the utilities that come with them, that makes life so easy for IT administrators like him.
http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1205
http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1205
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