Is Thin Finally In?

One thing I haven’t heard much about in all the grand debates about software as a service is the complexion of the devices accessing those applications.

I got to thinking about this last week while I was sitting through a spirited defense of the thin-computing model given during a New York event by Wyse Technology. “The PC is now reaching a limit. The only thing left to take out is the margin,” said John Kish, president and CEO of Wyse, winking at Dell’s earnings warning earlier last week.

HEATHER CLANCY Can be reached via e-mail at hclancy@cmp.com.

Certainly, it’s in Wyse’s best interest to tout the “thin is in” model, given it is the market-share leader in hardware for this marketplace. But after I left the event last week, I went over to a friend’s house for dinner. Later, as we were lying on the couch digesting, she mentioned she’d be working at home the next morning because of this cool thing called MetaFrame that her company uses to manage its applications. Now, that really got my attention, especially because she works for a smallish title search company. Note to Citrix: She even knew the software’s name! Note to Wyse: She uses PCs both at home and in the office, not thin terminals.

During his presentation last week, Kish cited all sorts of reasons we’ve hit an inflection point for thin clients, including the ubiquitous security and manageability arguments. Both are compelling, especially since Kish was armed with statistics from Gartner suggesting the cost to manage a thin client over its life can be up to 71 percent less than the money you’d pay to support an unmanaged Windows desktop. And I believe, as Kish does, that thin computing will find a happy home in consumer devices such as smart televisions and in developing economies with tighter administration control requirements.

Most users, particularly small businesses, just want access to their applications. As more accept the idea of software as a service, will they really need all those pieces and parts on the desktop? Indeed, why wouldn’t the service provider simply provide the access device as part of the “installation” process, much like cable boxes or cable modems are handled today?

The big wild card in all this, of course, is the tsunami of mobile computing—a wave that no one, not even the network managers who bemoan it, will be able to hold back.

Is the PC as we know it done for? HEATHER CLANCY, Editor at CRN, welcomes feedback at hclancy@cmp.com.