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Securing Enterprise Data and Computer Power

October 3, 2008 By

In March I posted an entry on a significant enhancement in the computing realm, the thin client.   That post focused on how thin client computing is changing the net assessment in computer security (see:  http://ctovision.com/2008/03/computer-security-a-change-to-the-net-assessment/ ).

I’ve been really pleased to watch thin client computing take off.  How widespread is adoption now?  In August Sun announced that they had nearly doubled their shipments of thin clients from the previous quarter.   That’s pretty cool.  In fact, it is Kurzweilian.

What do I mean by Kurzwelian?  Advanced technologies like this can sometimes creep up on us because they seem like they are just growing slowly.  Doubling from a low number doesn’t get your attention at first.  But when a technology continues to double in adoption year after year pretty soon it becomes almost ubiquitous.    Seems like thin client computing is right on that curve.

But what about today’s mobile user?   As previously mentioned I’ve been using a Sun Ray thin client laptop.   Adoption of these devices will probably follow the same Kurzweilian curve that other thin clients will.  Since it is a new idea not everyone will jump immediately.  First only those enterprises that care about protecting information will adopt them.  Then the savings in terms of cost and the enhanced functionality provided by thin client approaches will drive more competitive benefits to the corporate world and more efficiencies in the public sector and adoption will grow fast.

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  • http://profile.typepad.com/6p0105361b808a970c lewis shepherd

    Bob – good piece, and I recognize (of course) the value of thin clients in many situations. But are you arguing they are "the" future? That they will actually be "ubiquitous" and that, though not everyone will jump immediately, everyone will eventually jump? Not sure about that… Won't you want to take advantage of the greater chip speed/multicore/manycore capabilities on your laptop and your mobile device? Getting everything on a thin platform means you're pulling it all off the wire, with little or no oomph from your platform. (Today, that often leads to seriously degraded video performance, e.g.) Seems like the Kurzweilian curve is on the side of Gordon Moore still, and that computational power is going to continue to accrue on the device (PC, handheld, contact-lens-computer-of-the-future) and you'll want to take advantage of that whether you're connected or not, firewalled or not. Just a thought, interested in your comments.

  • http://profile.typepad.com/ctovision CTO Bob Gourley

    Those, Lewis, are very very good thoughts and most appreciated. Moore's Law is not going to be the best predictor of the outcome here. Why? Because that fundamental force is also helping with compute power in the grid. Chip speed too is not always the best indicator. We have seen designs where chip speed is actually reduced but multi-core/multi-thread increases compute power. But now I'm rambling.
    I think the point of your comment is critically important. There is a dynamic here. And even though I'm sure that thin clients and grid computing are a huge part of our future, I'm also sure that we will continue to see more "oomph" on the local platform.
    I've already seen some interesting mixtures of thin and think clients. For example, I've seen an ability to flash out new operating systems to computers in a way that ensures nothing else is running on the computer and then on that OS on what was a fat client set up virtual machines that run desktop windows from the grid. I've also seen software that emulates a thin client in any fat client.