The Shrinking Datacenters

"Data centers are changing in size; some are getting smaller and more nimble, while others are increasing both in capacity and square footage. However, the one constant is that many large enterprise facilities are either increasing bandwidth, linking branch offices into one corporate headquarters site (and therefore increasing size) due to better fiber-optic connections across town or even between cities, or consolidating services and creating vast virtualized environments to such a great extent that the data center is shrinking."

A key factor enabling this shrinking of data centers is : server consolidation and implementation of virtualization technologies (both on server and storage side). This is logically followed by a second phase where existing desktops and laptops are converted to thin computing.
http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/P2912/23p12/23p12.asp&guid=

The implication for IT marketers evangelising thin computing is : to keep an eye on companies adopting any virtualization related technologies - or going in for server consolidation. These are the customers who will be most likely to adopt thin client computing in the near future.

Vista : Gods gift to thin client computing !!!

Heres an interesting snippet that quotes Wyse CEO Tarkan Maner:

"Vista was God’s gift to Wyse". "When Vista's launch was announced, I was partying at home. I am not exaggerating. I bet it’s a phenomenal OS, but it requires so much memory."

Also talks about how Wyse and Novell are working together to create the thin client ecosystem - which he hopes, will help in eventually selling to ISPs and telcos offering broadband services that come bundled with thin clients for the home.
http://software.seekingalpha.com/article/30326

A time for SBC, A time for VDI and A time for Streaming....

Client Virtualization in its most basic format is : Server based computing…. a scenario where hunderds of client devices connect to one server image. One of the reasons why "thin clients" in their earlier avatar did not take off was because, the minute the complexity of the applications hosted on the server increased, the thin client solution was found wanting in performance.

A spate of new technologies have now given a new lease of life to thin clients - main among them being, VDI (Virtual Desktop Interface), Application Streaming and CCI (Client Consolidation Infrastructure).

Below is an amazingly insightful article written on "When to use VDI, when to use server-based computing, and how Application streaming fits into all this".

Do take time to read this article - this is a really good one :
http://www.brianmadden.com/content/content.asp?id=682

The Penguin Goes Thin !!

Another sign of the changing times…..

Linux heavyweights also are now putting their weight behind virtualization and thin clients….read on :
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/article.php/3666626

"Novell kicked off its annual conference yesterday with a slew of announcements, including updates for its core Linux offerings and a new enterprise thin-client solution" …… and then……..…"Red Hat is working on its stateless Linux effort, which is essentially a thin-client implementation"

The thin client ecosystem, which was once upon a time "thin" in the negative sense, is slowly getting populated with better and still better components, which are heralding the "Return of the Thin Client"….. as a blockbuster possibility.

Thin Clients : Helping Doctors

Heres an interesting implementation of thin clients in a healthcare environment.
http://www.itworldcanada.com/Pages/Docbase/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=idgml-53ba2603-1a43-41bd-8597-d1a304aec964

Yet another place where a client virtualised environment helps the organisation concentrate on their core business - taking care of patients, instead of worrying about managing fat client devices and their accompanying issues.

The Return of the Prodigal

Heres an interesting article on "The return of the thin client".
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=119062&WT.svl=cmpnews2_1

Is good because it details out what are the different components of this solution - the hardware and the software - and what are the revenue streams that this will bring in - especially for system integrators.

Voices from the market

THE FUTURE IS THIN.
And the consensus seems to be building….and pretty rapidly too.

Attached is a "Voice from the market"….who seems to agree that the future is REALLY thin.
http://www.technospot.net/blogs/index.php/2007/03/06/introducing-the-thin-future-thin-clients/

Though some of his views - that thin clients perhaps cannot go to homes is debatable, a very interesting post to see - just for the beautiful photos it has included.

Application Virtualization - the new grail

One of the related technologies that Virtualization brings in - is what is termed as "Application Streaming". As a concept - this meshes with the other emerging trend in computing - of SaaS (Software as a service).

"Virtualization — isolates the application from the operating system and other applications — and streaming, delivers the application to the user. Moving the management of desktops to the data center, can reduce hundreds of desktop environments to one that’s under lock and key, while giving the user the illusion that he still has a fat client. Or a server can hold multiple desktop images, each tailored to a specific user’s work based on profiles stored in a directory.
When the user needs them, those applications — and sometimes complete operating environments — can be "streamed" over the network to the desktop, where they execute locally, without the server and communications overhead that comes from traditional client/server or thin-client computing. Some products allow the streaming of just those pieces of software actually needed for that session — perhaps just 20% of an application’s code — minimizing the demand for bandwidth, memory and disk."
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=282928&pageNumber=1

This is an extremely interesting article - also gives a brief view of how client computing has changed over the years.

Buy it. Install it. Forget it.

Heres a very interesting post on how a school district (group of 7 schools) moved from a Windows desktop based environment - to a Linux thin clients based environment and in the process saving money for the schools.
http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci1245710,00.html

As more and more people are gradually realising - Virtualising the clients, doesn't just save money for organisations - but also mean a lot less hassles in maintainance and management.

Buy it. Install it. Forget it.
That’s what virtualization enables at the client side !!

Saving the bucks through virtualization

Heres a small blog post speculating : "Can Virtualization save you money ?"
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=347&tag=nl.e019

The article talks about virtualization in its entirety (storage virtualization, server virtualization and client virtualization) - and the key areas where it helps in saving money for customers.

Can be a small elevator pitch for you.