headcount will dramatically cut the overall Reduces the benefit-in-kind nature of the
cost of support provision. work laptop – many people see their work-
Increased duration between thin-client provided laptop as their own property
hardware refresh cycles – some TC vendors and use it for personal activities outside
claim refresh cycles in the region of six years of work time. HVDs make this less
or more. Given the relatively low processing practical and may prevent it completely.
requirements of the client terminal, and the Slight increase in complexity of print
fact that many mainframe dumb terminals management - there are countless urban
have been in service for more than two myths regarding the emails of senior
decades without issue, these estimates appear executives being printed out in the loading
conservative, to say the least. bay in error. Most of these myths are just that!
Ability to defer major software platform There is no reason that printing should be an
migrations – while HVDs won’t eliminate the issue.
need to migrate to newer versions, ultimately Management tools to support
they can be used to defer the point at which an virtual environments are still
organisation makes that particular leap of faith. relatively immature – perhaps
Promotes centralised print policies and the biggest issue with HVD
associated savings – thin client solutions work environments at the moment is the
best in managed print environments, which lack of quality tooling to manage the
offer significant savings over and above the whole process end-to-end.
typical chaotic printing scenarios seen today. Availability of skilled resources
to administer and run HVD
On The Downside environments – the lack of
Thin-client sceptics, on the other hand, tools makes the need for skilled
see the world from a completely different resources even more pressing.
perspective (amazingly enough) and claim the This has created scarcity in the
following disadvantages: market, which, in turn, has caused
Total cost of ownership differential is upward pressure on pay rates.
insufficient – and indeed research shows that
the costs of running a virtualised estate are Thin client solutions distributed
often comparable to a well-managed fat client
are very much
computing
based infrastructure.
Increased reliance on the data centre –
appliances that either
estate by 2014. How
will this shift affect the way in which systems
not such an issue, if your data centre is totally
work or not so the need
and users are supported? Here are some of
reliable; if not, a single outage affects every
user instantaneously.
for desk-side support
the possible effects and their impacts upon
the IT service management community:
Requires network connectivity for the user is largely eliminated; On-site/desk side support need diminishes
to be productive/no offline capability – to be
today’s IT literate user
Logistics become increasingly critical
fair, this also applies to fat clients, given the
prevalence of client server applications and
population is more than
Threshold for establishing an on-site
support presence likely to increase
collaborative working environments.
capable of plugging in
Peripatetic support to rise
High-end graphics work and video
three cables and pressing
Reduction in volume of self-inflicted injuries
editing/streaming may be impaired – Elimination of point of entry for viruses, etc
many HVD vendors claim this to be untrue,
the ‘On’ switch (given
Diskless devices don’t have disk failures, so
but, given the inability of many corporate
appropriate guidance and
dropping your terminal is less likely to result in
infrastructures to handle network native video,
pushing it to the data centre and back again
encouragement from the
an unbootable lump of plastic and electronics.
Self-initiated environment refresh is the
is likely to add complexity and performance service desk). new first step of the ‘diagnostic’ process
issues. Simplification of the service desk diagnostic
Potential for personal data privacy issues Shape Of The Future process
– paranoia specialists and conspiracy theorists So, we have covered the pros and cons of Confidence that the device or its
believe that any data stored anywhere is a risk. HVD architectures. Gartner research predicts configuration hasn’t been ‘tampered’ with
Nothing the virtualisation lobby can say or do will that HVD or thin-client based architectures Ability to rule hardware issues out of the
change that. However, the real risks are minimal. will account for up to 15% of the worldwide equation very easily
august.september | 2009 SupportWorld
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