Firm bets the time's finally right to chuck desktops

As desktop computers continue to create headaches for IT managers and companies become more open to outsourced computing alternatives, virtualization specialist Savvis is betting that a new thin client service will find favor among business customers.

Launched Wednesday, the "desktop utility computing service" is aimed at helping companies rein in overhead costs related to managing issues such as PC security, availability and maintenance. The offering promises to replace traditional desktops with so-called thin client devices made by Sun Microsystems and outsource management of the computers to Savvis, which will manage device administration and oversee operation of the servers on which companies run their desktop business applications.

For a variable flat rate per user, Savvis is offering to swap desktop PCs for Sun's Sun Ray thin client devices and provide access to programs and file storage maintained in its centralized server operations. The service also utilizes Sun's Tarantella desktop software to support Microsoft's Windows applications and Sun's own StarOffice productivity tools.

The offering will initially be available in Europe, with plans for a U.S. rollout later this year. Company executives said customers are increasingly willing to consider phasing out desktops in favor of thin client technology. Though using thin clients and outsourcing desktop administration are hardly new ideas, Savvis executives said customers are becoming more willing to entertain alternatives to traditional PC infrastructure.

"In the last year, outsourcing the desktop is something that's become increasingly easy to consider, as the bandwidth is there to solve performance issues, and frustration over towering PC maintenance costs has mounted," said Rob McCormick, chief executive at Savvis. "IT departments are moving toward a new method of getting their infrastructure, where the elements remain the same, but instead of buying assets, companies rent the infrastructure as a service. Virtualization is the technology that will allow service providers to deliver that effectively."

McCormick said some people still have negative perceptions about thin client technology and its ability to provide the same level of performance as desktop computers, but he believes that an increasing number of companies are ready to embrace the technology.

"Customers have seen this model before and it wasn't ready for them. Thin client was weak in the mid-'90s; there weren't enough applications and the devices were too slow," McCormick said. "But with more available bandwidth, and improved processing in thin clients, the story is really different today, and many IT people understand that."

Another factor that has changed companies' perceptions of working with outsourced thin client technology is the increasing demand for adherence to financial regulations such as the U.S. government's Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. By passing more responsibility for managing required data storage on to a service provider, companies can reduce pressure to focus on compliance themselves, he said.

Savvis said that it currently has several companies testing the thin client offering and that it expects to have more customers working with the system in the near future.

[groink_hi]

People's work lives are unpredictable...

As the article mentioned, the concept and use of thin clients have been around for years. There are several issues at stake, but I'd like to address just one of them.

I compare thin clients to mass transit. I'm from a small city in Hawaii, where there is no mass transit system like subways and trains. For over 20 years, there's been talk about Honolulu building a mass transit system. Although there are many benefits (save on gas, getting to work faster, etc.), the one factor is that people like "being in control".

What I mean by this is that people like having 100-percent control over whatever they do and use, simply because people in general have a very poor sense of planning ahead in their daily work lives. Let's face it - most people have NO IDEA what they're going to do, either during or at the end of the work day. In the case of mass transit, it would be difficult to carry along your golf clubs, a basketball, bowling ball, tennis racket, and a nice three-piece suit for dining. How are you going to know what kind of mood you'll be in when you leave work? Maybe you'd like to swing the golf clubs, or go to a bar and throw darts. In other words, mass transit are for people who have a fixed schedule in their lives, and they know EXACTLY how their entire day is structured. For the rest of us, a car is handy in that we can throw everything into the car, giving us full independance of our lives, without having to plan ahead.

Linking the mass transit philosophy to our computers, most of us use computers in the same free spirit way. Even at work, most of us really don't have any idea how we'll be using our computers. Maybe at the beginning of the day I'll be reading my e-mail and typing up a letter. And then, all of a sudden, my boss wants me to do something I've never done before, such as producing and burning a DVD presentation, or install and use AutoCAD for the first time because someone sent us a DWG file instead of a PDF. Thin clients are for those people who know EXACTLY how their computing days are structured, and that nothing changes.

That's why I think thin clients will always be a nitch thing, rather than a regular thing. The only way thin clients can totally replace full-on desktop PCs is if our daily work lives are fully structured, predictable, and unchanging.

[Albertv]

Kind of Like the breech at MasterCard

Goody, now Corps can blame the contractor for screw-ups. Of course the lowest bidder will get to do the work and MasterCard can attest to what that actually can cost in business prestige.

[montgomeryburns]

Fire Molly Wood

Fire Molly Wood..