Reprinted with permission © 2008 TreeTop Technologies
For years, it’s been a back-and-forth battle: thin clients vs. fat PCs. It is an ongoing debate because both thin and fat have their value. Thanks to an increasingly cost and security-conscious environment, though, thin is in again! With the help of virtualization technologies, thin clients have been further propelled into the mainstream.
Thin clients are a particularly good way to counter the threat of rootkits. While they don’t prevent such infections, they sharply reduce the damage potential. Also, with centralized storage and management of user environments, it is easier for IT to detect and eliminate security flaws. For some other security benefits of thin clients, see the December 2007 article from Baseline magazine titled “5 Secure Reasons for Thin Clients.”
For cost comparison, studies show the total cost of ownership of thin-client networks at as little as half that of standard PC networks. One reason is that thin clients contain no moving parts. This drives down failure rates that are usually associated with traditional PCs. But if you’re running high-powered apps and can’t afford network downtime, stick with the faster, fatter PCs.
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Footnotes: From "View from the TreeTop" Volume 2 Issue 9 September 2008