From thick to thin clients
The affordability of computers by many organizations was as a result of the invention of desktop computers, unlike the days of mainframes. This made many schools have technology-enabled environment. Thick clients are full-featured computers with local hard drives and capacity to run multimedia applications. They can be connected to a network and operated as standalone computers. However, maintenance and sustainability were some of the challenges encountered by the use of thick clients. Many organizations had to incur extra cost in resolving the issue of viruses on the systems. However, the emergence of thin client architecture was able to mitigate some of the challenges encountered using thick clients.
Many organizations now
opt for thin client environment because of high cost of a desktop replacement,
network security, data access to mobile or remote workers (Hewlett-Packard Inc,
2012). Thin clients are gaining ground at a faster speed with various
manufacturers’ design process to suit the needs of users. Though, the
technology has challenges of scalability and high performance servers. There
might be a need to upgrade the server as the users’ workload increases or
purchase a new server. The capability is limited in handling multimedia-rich
applications, and the transmission of data requires a higher network bandwidth.
However, the benefits outweigh the challenges. Thin clients have lower
acquisition, administrative, and maintenance costs. Thin clients have better
security, and do not retain data during processes, as processing is centrally
managed on the server. Thin clients are highly sustainable and do not require
disks, regular updating or becoming obsolete within a short period. Reduction of
network congestion and support of heterogeneous PC environment are part of the
benefits of thin clients (Educause, 2012).
Other technologies
might help the adoption rate of thin client architecture. The use of wireless
technology in a thin client environment will mitigate the issue of network
bandwidth, and transmission of data will be faster. The wireless technology is
becoming more popular such that students with thin client netbook can have
access to school web applications anywhere, anytime. The cloud computing
technology will also aid the effective use of thin client architecture, as this
will reduce the workload on the server. Users can access applications stored
outside the primary server.
References
Hewlett- Packard.
(2012). When to consider thin client solution? Retrieved September 10, 2012 from
http://www.hp.com/sbso/solutions/pc_expertise/article/thinclients_consider.html.
Educause. (2012). What
are thin clients? Retrieved September 10, 2012 from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/DEC0005.pdf
Aderonke,
ReplyDeleteYou have made a great comparison between thick and thin clients. Our district switched to thin clients a few years ago. The benefits seemed transparent at first, but I appreciate the change more now that I have read your post. It has proven true that they are more sustainable and require less updating. Do you have any thoughts on what the next level in sustainability might be?
Jeri
Jeriann,
DeleteThe next level I foresee for sustaining thin client architecture is effective use of cloud computing. Learners or users can store most of their work on sky drive, and this would reduce the cost of upgrading the server. I want to assume that the most expensive component in thin client architecture is the server. In addition, if there could be sky memory to reduce the demand of high memory for multimedia-based applications.
Aderonke,
ReplyDeleteGreat post for thought into IT architecture. My school district has implemented some thin technology. We have experienced several challenges with this implementation. First and foremost was the demand for higher bandwidth and a new server, both of which you made mention. We updated servers over the summer and time will tell as we get into the school year if this will have a positive effect on notebook speed and reliability. Another challenge that we have experienced is battery life. We experienced massive battery failure during the second year of notebook use. It was self-defeating to have laptop computers that needed to be plugged into the wall which severely limited the benefit of mobility. I believe our battery woes have more to do with the brand of hardware that we implemented rather than it was a testimony on the technology as a whole. Great thought provoking post!
You have said it all. The hardware has a lot of impact on the success of any technology program. Often, we consider initial cost, and at the end incur more maintenance cost. Battery life of systems is an issue, and I realized the first set of Intel classmate PCs we acquired were not as efficient as the newer models.
DeleteAderonoke,
ReplyDeletePrior to reading your blog I had no idea what thick and thin clients were. However it was interesting to note that this innovation had many of the attributes of emerging technology as mentioned by Thornburg, (2009) Most notably they are faster, cheaper and more efficient than their predecessors.
Do you have any idea of how many school districts have already adopted this new technology?
Jennifer
Unfortunately, I do not have data on US school districts because I am not based in the US. In Nigeria, I know about 50 schools that are using the thin client architecture. The recent deployment of Digital Hub for schools by the British Council runs on thin client architecture.
DeleteAderonoke, I really appreciated your posting, especially when you wrote, "The capability is limited in handling multimedia-rich applications, and the transmission of data requires a higher network bandwidth. However, the benefits outweigh the challenges. Thin clients have lower acquisition, administrative, and maintenance costs. Thin clients have better security, and do not retain data during processes, as processing is centrally managed on the server." I would imagine that due to the drastic differences in file sizes between multimedia-rich applications and other files that maintaining uniformity would be difficult. I have noticed that depending upon the institution where I teach I am either severely limited in file sizes for ordinary attachments (community college email) or I can attach files that once seemed large, but are now normative. How do you foresee maintaining the ability to transmit larger files over computer systems in public community colleges that usually lack adequate funding for their I.T. departments?
ReplyDeleteThere is file transfer software that could be used to reduce the high usage of internet bandwidth, which could be free or at commercial value. I do not have allegiance for any in particular, but examples are “yousendit” https://www.yousendit.com/, and “ binder” http://www.binfer.com/, among others.
DeleteThis is your wonderful and beautiful blog. It is really a good post.
ReplyDeleteWindows Thin Client & RDP Thin Client