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.