Benefits of thin clients may not convince

Thin clients need to offer more than power savings if firms are to ditch the flexibility and capabilities of PCs

HP's recent acquisition of thin client firm Neoware sparked fresh debate over thin clients and server-based architectures. IT Week's Business Green blog, for example, suggested that the move may prove beneficial for the environment by boosting the uptake of thin clients rather than Windows PCs by businesses.

Whether environmental concerns really will motivate a new move towards thin clients seems doubtful. It has long been apparent that such devices consume less energy than the typical PC, but most companies still prefer to have a full-blown Windows system on each user's desk. The reasons for this boil down to the PCís greater operational flexibility and that many Windows applications do not work well in a server-based, multi-user configuration.

What does seem to be happening right now is a divergence in the thin client market, with entry-level devices becoming thinner and more appliance-like, while the models at the higher end of the spectrum become more powerful and more like PCs.

Entry-level thin client devices are finding a niche within IT infrastructure as the user interface for virtual desktops. In this role, the user console can be made as simple as possible, and the processor, memory and embedded operating system that traditionally power a thin client can be replaced with a single chip that hardwires the remote screen protocol.

However, most new thin client deployments involve high-end models, such as the Windows XP Embedded devices I reviewed earlier this year. These models are a hair's breadth away from being a full PC. Although they lack a hard drive, they load their operating system from Flash storage just as if they were booting from a hard drive, and can run standard Windows applications.

Even these high-end thin clients consume much less power than a typical desktop PC. The models in the group test were rated at 30W to 40W, while the average desktop can easily exceed 200W.

So could firms simply swap their PCs for XP Embedded thin clients? If you largely use browser-based applications, the answer is a definite yes. For other applications, things are not quite so simple. Windows applications can be installed into Flash on such devices, but any user files created would have to be stored on the network.

Even if it proves possible to run applications this way, would firms be willing to make the switch? I get the feeling that many companies are nervous about giving up PCs, and that we are likely to see firms favouring smaller, more power-frugal desktops before any mass move to thin clients.