1. Hardware
With more complex software being distributed, desktop hardware upgrades have been accepted as a necessary evil. The currently accepted useful life of a PC is 2 years, although often depreciated over 3 years.
2. Centralised support
Significant benefits are obtained by centralising the support function, not only in savings, but also in the quality and consistency of the support function. The more diverse the geographical base, the more advantages can be gained.
3. Bandwidth
A Microsoft study conducted by NEC and Groupe Bull shows that the highest bandwidth user is a structured task worker, typically performing the same tasks repetitively, e.g claims processing, accounts, customer service. These workers would typically use 20Kbits of bandwidth, making LAN performance over dialup connections a reality.
4. Power
Power consumption of a thin-client device is 14% of a PC. To place this in perspective, this is 5%, per year, of the thin-client device purchase price. Since a thin-client device will be expected to have a useful life beyond 5 years, the power savings alone will offset 25% of the cost of those devices.
5. Licensing
Licensing is a major component of IT expenditure. The difficulty of supplying software when needed has led businesses to adopt one of two approaches; deploy software to all PCs and lock users out of those applications that they are not licensed for or purchase licenses for every PC, regardless of whether the application will be used or not.
6. Security
A concern in a traditional, fat-client environment is the inability to control what is copied and taken elsewhere, possibly into the hands of competitors. Data-loss is rife in this environment, with users often taking a floppy disk home to work on a document and the disk becoming corrupted, so losing the work that they have done.
7. Backup/restore
In a fat-client environment, data backup is normally conducted at the local storage site. In a distributed WAN, this will normally require file servers at each site, unless WAN bandwidth is substantial. Backups will be conducted locally at each site, resulting in higher upfront costs for the equipment and higher operational costs, both in media costs and management time.
8. Viruses
By not having the ability to introduce data locally, the scope for introducing viruses is greatly reduced. There have been many high profile cases recently where the costs incurred, directly and indirectly, by viruses have been highlighted. Why take the risk? Admittedly, the floppy and CD drives are often disabled in a managed environment, although any above average user can bypass these controls if they are determined to âget that file.onto the networkâ, not knowing that it may be virus-contaminated. But why pay for a floppy and CD drive, if theyâre just going to be disabled?
9. Devices
PCs are attractive and a prime target for theft. Weâve all had it happen to us, even if only on a small scale. Until connected to the correct environment, thin-client devices are worthless and so less attractive. Your insurance company should be able to provide you with reduced premium benefits. Naturally, servers will require a very high level of physical security.
10. Speed of deployment, repair and replacement
Thin-client computing environments typically enjoy faster deployment times for new software and upgrades. Fewer IT staff are required to track and ensure successful distribution.
