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March 6, 2000

A Thin Client To Suit Every Need

By Alan S. Horowitz

hin clients don't just come in small packages these days. IBM, for example, has four lines of thin clients. The low-end model can handle just 16 to 64 Mbytes of memory, and gets by on a 66-MHz PowerPC chip, while the high-end model can reach 256 Mbytes and uses a 266-MHz Pentium chip.

Why the differences? Companies are using thin clients for different purposes, says Howie Hunger, director of channels and marketing for IBM's Network Station line. Companies need more power for running Java applets than browser applications, and even more for large multimedia apps. Hunger says task workers, such as customer-service representatives, tend to use the lower-end systems, while knowledge workers need the high-end machines for jobs such as accessing information available via streaming video.

One of the thinnest lines of thin clients around is Sun Microsystems' SunRay series. SunRays are terminals with a slot for a smart card that provides security for user authentication and application accessibility. A user can take a smart card from one machine, plug it into another SunRay, and pick up work where he or she left off. All functionality comes from the network servers.

Photo by James Elliott The Bank of Nova Scotia says 50 of its power users, who had been using Sun Solaris workstations, Windows NT systems, and other platforms, have easily adjusted to using SunRays in a test the bank launched last year. "We were looking for alternatives to our existing workstations and PCs," says Gail Smith, a senior VP at the bank.

Scalability, reduced management requirements, and the ability to run Unix and Windows NT apps from a single desktop device prompted the move to the SunRay. Smith says that with PCs and workstations, the machines must have onboard power to handle users' peak demands. But these devices are used near capacity for only part of the day, so there's a lot of underused power sitting on the desktop. The thin- client architecture provides a more-efficient use of resources, Smith says. The company also has to buy fewer software licenses, because they're needed only for the number of concurrent users rather than for the number of desktops.

Of course, not all of the bank's users were convinced at first. "I had some people who really didn't want to give up their workstations," Smith says, "but as they started to use the SunRays, I didn't hear any feedback, good or bad. It hasn't impacted them, which is what we wanted."

Return to main story, "Thin Clients Tapped In Times Of Change."

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