FRAMINGHAM (02/11/2000) - Thin clients have so far failed to make major inroads in corporate markets. But users and analysts say Windows 2000 may change that.
With the launch of Windows 2000 Server and the inclusion of Terminal Services as a standard feature, support for thin clients will no longer be an expensive add-on. That could ignite sales of thin clients, said Eileen O'Brien, an analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. She said she expects total thin-client sales, estimated at a mere 650,000 units for last year, to almost double to 1.2 million this year. Most of the growth will come from Windows-based terminals, rather than Java-based ones or other thin clients, said O'Brien.
Windows-based terminals (WBT), due from several vendors this spring, will support local printers and a local browser. Higher-powered terminals using Windows NT Embedded and running a more advanced Internet Explorer 5 browser are expected by midyear.
"From the cost perspective, choosing Windows-based Terminals was a no-brainer," said Joe Butler, director of information technology operations at Los Angeles-based Frederick's of Hollywood Inc., which recently deployed 60 WBTs from San Jose-based Wyse Technology Inc. for a call center application. He said the decision saved him one full-time support person and $500 per desktop, compared with PCs.
According to O'Brien, WBTs mainly replace terminals rather than PCs and are deployed for repetitive tasks in markets such as call centers and the financial industry.
Michael Gartenberg, vice president of personal distributed technologies at Gartner Group Inc. in Stamford, Conn., said he expects a rise in the adoption of thin clients as many organizations opt for a more managed environment and try to avoid PC hardware updates.
Some users are finding other benefits, too. Dale Smith, network manager at Forest City Trading Group Inc. in Portland, Ore., said his company is accessing Windows NT 4.0, Terminal Server Edition, from ordinary desktop PCs, thereby avoiding sending enormous amounts of data over the network. He said the company prefers to have a PC on every desktop. "But the way things are evolving, a year from now that could be different," he added.
Building Terminal Services into Windows 2000 poses a challenge to vendors of server software that perform similar functions. But O'Brien said he expects vendors such as Santa Cruz, Calif.-based The Santa Cruz Operation Inc., with its Tarantella Product, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Citrix Systems Inc., with MetaFrame, to "continue to plug holes in Microsoft's product."
Citrix, for instance, this week will announce technology that lets a remote user with a browser see a Web page with links to all applications he's authorized to use.