Looking At Thin Clients in a Whole New Light
For the uninitiated, it seems like such a strange concept that we talk about thin
clients and fat clients in terms of computer operations. For the average computer
user, these terms are almost like speaking a foreign language, and indeed for most people
they mean nothing and don’t have any reference to what they do on their computer
hardware on a day to day basis.
It is important though, that
if you operate a computer for business purposes, that you develop an understanding of
computer terminology and concepts so that you can take advantage of functionality that
will improve your operational efficiency where ever possible. Thin clients can do
exactly that.
Let us try and make this as
simple and as straightforward as possible for you. Thin clients (also referred to
as lean clients or slim clients sometimes) are a single, user computer in a more complex
web of computer architecture. This architecture may comprise of one or more user computers
as well as one or more servers.
The one or more servers act as
the traffic wardens in a sense – they process all of the information that passes in and
out of the one or more thin clients – taking a lot of the operational
responsibility in terms of housing applications and devices. In contrast, thin clients
typically only have things like web browsers or remote software loaded onto them, so that
they are in effect as thin and light as possible.
Fat or thick clients are
almost the exact opposite of the thin clients – as the name suggests – they
house application themselves and process most data themselves, really only using the
resources of the server to facilitate email and other communications and for storage and
back up purposes.
Thin clients are particularly
useful for large call centers and other customer service type environments, where there is
no need for users to have software loaded onto their machines. This would prove costly in
term of needing to buy individual licenses for each machine, rather than buying a volume
network license, but would also be very time consuming in terms of IT personnel needing to
load and then maintain the applications on each machine individually.
Instead, by taking a thin
client approach, companies are able to give their staff access to the necessary
applications through a layered IT network that has various levels of permissions built in.
The only applications installed on these machines in this kind of environment include
frequently used applications, a web browser, a user interface and an operating system.
Everything else, including the high end applications, are run at the server end.
Furthermore, in this kind of
high volume environment, using a thin client network also allows for IT personnel
to make updates and changes to operating systems and software again without needing to
move from machine to machine to effect the changes. All functionality is maintained at the
server level making it fast, efficient and pretty much in real time.
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