If it's thin, it's in

TECHNOLOGY: Thin client shipments will grow at 26 per cent and reduce the cost of desktop computing.

You won't find many takers for thin clients in India. In fact, you won't even find them on most technology officers' priority list. Yet, when vendors like HP, NEC, Wyse talk about high growth numbers for thin client computing, you can only nod your head in wonder.

Essentially, a thin client is a computer (called client) installed in a client-server architecture that has little or no application logic, thereby depending primarily on the central server for processing activities, explains Wikipedia.

According to International Data Corporation, the thin client market segment is forecast to more than double its unit volume shipments worldwide in the next several years "" growing from just over 3 million units in 2002 to 7.6 million units in 2006, of which India constitutes 1,46,000 units. Windows-embedded thin client shipments are expected to grow at a 26 per cent compound annual growth rate.

"Thin clients should not be mistaken for fanciful desktops. These next generation machines' computing is performed by a remote server and all of the data storage takes place on a distant hard drive," says Arun Rao, business manager (client virtualisation), HP.

Rao explains, in thin-client computing, the terminal on your desk does not do any computing "instead, it relays information from servers and hard drives that performs all the work, Internet surfing and data storage".

Gartner estimates that thin clients reduce the cost of desktop computing by 28-57 per cent per year compared to the cost of a typical networked PC.

Rao agrees, "Over five years, a company's total cost of ownership is reduced by Rs 50,000 (per thin client). Imagine the savings in a company with a minimum 100 such clients." On an average, the cost of procurement of thin clients is between Rs 10,000 and Rs 40,000.

"It is a profitable arrangement due to reduced overheads required to service the thin clients versus the fat-clients," reasons Kazuhiko Kobayashi, executive vice president, NEC Corp, who is hoping to grow the global thin client business of NEC to $1.25 billion in the next three years. The fact is thin clients have no moving parts, and therefore less things to break.

"With the user having less control over applications and interfaces, there is less to break as well, and data-loss is not an issue," says Kobayashi.

Targeting businesses that put emphasis on network security such as the business process outsourcing industry, call centre businesses, banking and financial institutions, and government sectors, HP and NEC are optimistic that India is on its way to realise the benefits of thin client computing.

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Industry reports state that the most substantial total cost of ownership savings from typical thin client deployments can be clubbed in five key areas:

Reduced network administration costs (55 per cent of savings)

Reduced manpower administration (14 per cent)

Lowered hardware acquisition costs (13 per cent)

Easier deployment of application software upgrades (11 per cent)

Lowered operating-system upgrade deployment costs (3 per cent)