Well, as you can probably guess from the name of the movie, many of his listeners learned a sad fact about “trains looming in the distance.”
A similar analogy can be drawn about thin client (TC) technology. I am amazed that much of what has been written in the IS trade press condemns TC as everything from “a passing fad” to “an unmanageable technology.” TC technology, in today’s heterogeneous computing world, makes so much common sense that I find myself wondering what planet many of its detractors come from.
I know the reality; I’ve been living in the TC world for the past several months. I have first-hand experience with both IBM’s and Wyse’s (http://www.wyse.com) TC strategies. I have also used Microsoft Terminal Server (old MS code name, Hydra) running Client Access/400 on a Dell four-way server. I have operated Windows NT and associated software running “thin” on an AS/400 Model 620 via the AS/400’s Integrated PC Server (IPCS) and NetServer.
“So?” you say. “What’s the big deal?” Well, I’ve witnessed a significant decrease in the number of both help desk calls and calls requesting computer engineers to “look into” a user’s desktop “problem” since installing TC technology. From their desks, system and computer engineers can now view every code package, configuration, and user setting of every TC desktop. Problems, reconfigurations, and adjustments can be addressed individually or globally in a matter of minutes, without the engineers ever leaving their desks.
Also left behind is the tedious, time-consuming effort of trying to keep PCs (and associated memory, Network Interface Card, DASD, and other hardware/software issues) up-to-date.
Think about how much time your staff spends traipsing from user desk to user desk, resetting, installing, or even reinstalling software, code patches, upgrades—the whole nine yards. At a session I was delivering at the Spring ’98 COMMON Conference, I polled my audience of over 160 people to determine whether they were spending more time on AS/400-related or PC-related problems. The majority (say, 75 percent) indicated PC problems. By its very nature, TC technology can alleviate many of those “problems.”
Oh, and while we’re on the subject of staff, let me point out a potential roadblock you may run into when trying to deploy TC. Somewhere along the timeline of computing, the term “personal computers” changed the dynamic of IS staff and user desktops. These days, it seems that users who have PCs on their desks feel it’s a violation of their First Amendment rights if you try to replace said personal computer with a TC brick.
While it is true that not all PCs can be replaced with a TC brick, it seems the policy for PC-brick replacements should be thus: All employees (users, IS staff, whomever...) get a brick on their desktops unless they can prove the overriding business (not personal) need for a PC.
The PC-based IS model is not only more expensive than the TC model, but it also encourages users (directly, indirectly, or as a sin of omission) to install unauthorized software. This practice violates basic system security and creates problems for the IS department: (a) loss of control of the software inventory in use and (b) the necessity to deal with and support nonstandard PC-based application software, which could, potentially, crash your PC-based network. Brick-based TC technology eliminates both the temptation and the opportunity for users to install their own software because most TC bricks have no disk or diskette drives and only one moving part: the on/off switch.
By the way, should you choose to embrace my recommendation to replace PCs with TCs and eliminate “user-supplied” software, I suggest that you inform your folks of this change of events via email; it’ll be safer for you that way. Users can get a tad upset (read, violent) when you take away their over-priced, support-intensive, growing-obsoleteby-the-minute, non-cost-effective—but beloved—PCs and software.
So...although the age of space travel has not yet dawned for the human race and (contrary to Hollywood’s hit parade) no planets have collided with Earth, the age of thin client technology, like a train looming in the distance, is headed squarely for your AS/400 shop—and it’s about time!
TC technology will save your company money. It will improve the efficiency of your desktop computer engineering. It will help you run a leaner, meaner IS department. And it will allow you, the IS department, to gain back control of the user desktops.
IMHO, you and your organization can be either on the TC train or under it. You decide. Thin client technology is looming. Get on board now!
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