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August 30, 1999

Thin Takes Off

More companies find value; vendors expand offerings

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Perspective: FedEx Thinks Thin

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Network Computing For Client/Server, Think Thin
hin clients are steadily making inroads at a growing number of large companies, and not just as replacements for dumb terminals. Network Computing Devices Inc. this week will reveal that Stormont-Vail HealthCare has completed deployment of more than 500 ThinStar Windows terminals, its first step toward replacing about 2,000 PCs with NCD thin clients. IBM disclosed last week that AlliedSignal Turbocharging Systems and the Infiniti luxury car division of Nissan North America Inc. are replacing large numbers of PCs with thin clients. Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and NCD are also planning to en-hance their thin-client lines.

Customers moving forward with rollouts cite manageability, maintenance, cost savings, and increased software support as key reasons for choosing thin clients. "I've had enough with rebooting PCs and all the updating required," says Manny Aponte, VP and CIO for Stormont-Vail, in Topeka, Kan. "I devote two to three hours a month per desktop with PCs, and two to three hours a month per server with thin clients."

Aponte plans to replace all but 10% of his company's PCs with NCD's Windows terminals. "I can save as much as $1 million a year in labor costs," he says.

Vic Villasenor, Nissan North America's Lead Infinitnet Tech Support consultant, in Gardena, Calif., says he expects to have as many as 750 IBM Network Station 300 devices in Infiniti dealerships by year's end; AS/400 servers will operate on the back end. Three-quarters of these systems are replacements for PCs, which Villasenor says are less attractive for some operations because of their higher total costs of owner-ship. "The network computers are virtually immune to user-caused problems. There are few parts to wear or break," he says. "There's a reduced need for service and maintenance, and that results in lower total cost of ownership."

Savings in IT labor and desktop software costs were a significant factor behind Allied-Signal Turbocharging's decision to expand its use of IBM's Network Stations from its U.S. operations to 600 devices at plants in Italy and the United Kingdom. Cindy Reese, IS manager for the Turbocharging Systems division, in Torrance, Calif., puts the yearly savings at $200,000.

The devices are attached to Compaq ProLiant NT servers, but the company is migrating to IBM RS/6000 SPs running AIX by November. Thin clients can access applications--including SAP R/3--running on the servers, which was crucial to adopting these systems. Reese says companies have been slow to use thin clients because of the lack of software support on early devices, but that is changing.

IBM says that by year's end, it will add Intel thin clients to its lineup of PowerPC systems, improve the multimedia capabilities of the Network Stations' built-in browser, and further automate the management of the devices. Ed Petrozelli, general manager of IBM's Network Stations, says these devices will coexist with PCs. "Users including gate agents, claims agents, and people on the shop floor who need access to the Internet and a suite of productivity apps are the thin-client candidates," he says.

Jim Fulton, VP of product management at NCD, says his company has plans to "allow help-desk administrators to do more for customers over the network. We'll make the devices more secure, and we will better automate setup, from three minutes to 30 seconds." Hewlett-Packard will introduce this week a thin client based on its own design. Its existing line of NetVectra thin clients have been built by Wyse.

But users hoping to base future thin-client installations on servers running Windows 2000 should take a measured approach, says Rob Enderle, a VP at Giga Information Group. "Windows 2000 will have to mature before customers use it with thin clients, and that won't be until 2001," Enderle says. "When you have a server failure with thin clients, everyone is completely down."

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