In order to conserve technology budgets while expanding student-to-computer ratios, some educators are considering thin client systems. This chapter of the MAR*TEC Technology Coordinators Handbook defines thin client computing, describes its benefits, compiles total cost of ownership research, and recommends deployment strategies.

What are Thin Clients?

A thin client or a lean client is a networked computer without a hard disk drive, RAM, or modem. Thin client environments allow administrators to customize and deliver only the computing environment that each category of user needs. Regular PC computers or “fat” clients have built-in processing power and run programs locally using the capacity of their hard disk drives. Thin clients, on the other hand, process and store data on the server; only mouse movements, keystrokes, and screen images travel the network. Additionally all applications run from the server rather than on individual desktops. Thin clients run a lightweight operating system that is stored in flash memory. User functionality is not lost in a thin client environment. Almost any application may be run on a thin client network.

Benefits of Thin Clients

The benefits of a thin client computing environment include technical support, security, software management, and total cost of ownership. Technical support in a thin client environment is usually handled at the server. Technicians do not need to travel to each location to maintain and secure individual machines. Updating and maintaining software, installing security patches, and managing software licenses can all be done centrally. If a thin client machine goes down, technicians can unplug it and replace it with a working one. Users see the same interface from every computer, so one machine is as good as another.

Hand in hand with the technical support benefit of thin client computing is the security benefit. Security risks, after all, bring increased technical support demands. Ziff Davis Media (2004) proclaim, “What’s keeping information technology executives awake at night? The top concern is security. It’s deemed more important than even cost containment and cost reduction” (p. 1). Educational systems are also concerned with security especially since they have limited technical support staff. For instance, installing security patches on hundreds of disparate computers spread across a large district is overwhelming to a small technical support staff. Thin clients are attractive because only the server needs to be protected and patched. Users do not have the ability to introduce viruses using a thin client. Furthermore, data is also protected. Users cannot copy data from a file server to a desktop for removal or manipulation. Additionally, the cost of a thin client machine is minimal. Therefore, loss, theft, or downtime is less consequential than the loss of a PC notebook or desktop machine. Finally, some educators are recycling old computers (i.e., computers with 486 processing speed) into thin client appliances to save the cost of purchasing new devices.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools District Implementation

The North Carolina Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School District has 14 schools, 10,000 students, and roughly 4,000 computers. It employs thin clients at all the secondary schools and provides 5,500 student accounts, 600 faculty accounts, and 31 servers. These servers are distributed throughout the schools and districts and handle all the district server needs.

The decision to use thin clients followed a year-long strategic planning process. The analysis addressed a number of teaching needs and focused primarily on two issues: increased reliability and increased access. The thin client solution is helping them achieve those two main concerns. In a conference call of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Technology in Education Consortium [(MAR*TEC), 2002] Ray Reitz, chief technology officer at Chapel-Hill Carrboro City Schools, described the school before the thin clients as a hodgepodge of different models and operating systems. They employed the thin client model in an effort to achieve standardization.

Reitz says that the decision to switch to thin clients maximizes the district’s current network investment. Teachers wanted more access points throughout the school. It costs from $250 to $500 for thin client devices; therefore, the district was able to provide more access points. Another issue was home access; the goal was to provide technology access to every student at home as well as at school. Reitz explained that, through thin clients, he was able to provide students with both files and applications from home. The final piece was the issue of the digital divide. Currently, the district is placing 300 thin client units with high school students who do not have home access. It originally tried utilizing older computers modified for thin clients. However, this created a difficult situation because of poor security software, the lack of technical support that the district could provide, and the problem of constantly fixing them. The district wanted a foolproof solution for home use, so it investigated two products: the New Internet Computer (NIT) and Web DT. Reitz explained that these thin clients are more robust than many stand-alone computers and cost between $250 and $325 without the monitor. The district is finding that it can secure cheap or donated monitors from local corporations and universities. The number of servers required for home use is the same for school use. The number required is based on how many concurrent users need to be supported. The home use of these servers is normally lower than in-school use because there are not labs of 20 to 30 computers simultaneously hitting the servers. One of the benefits of the thin client solution is that students have access to the same desktop and applications at home as they do in school.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School District runs the following applications in its Citrix environment: productivity applications such as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Front Page), Claris Home Page, Hyperstudio, Inspiration, and PageMaker; teacher tools such as Making the Grade, InteGrade Pro, First Class, and SAS in Schools; specialized applications such as ArcView, ArcVoyager (GIS software), and Sibelius Music Composition; and educational applications such as Geometer's Sketchpad and the Grolier multimedia encyclopedia. The thin client solution in Chapel Hill-Carboro City Schools centralizes management, reduces labor, standardizes the systems, increases reliability, and reduces downtime.

Total Cost of Ownership

Most enterprises deploy thin clients to reduce TCO. While thin client devices cost less than fat clients, the real savings is found in indirect costs. Byte.com (1997) says Zona Research found “PC users often try to solve technical problems themselves–which sometimes makes the problems worse, and always interferes with their real jobs. . . The loss of productivity and extra problems these users cause eventually cost the company 50 percent more than professional support” (p. 1). In 2001, Gartner Research conducted a TCO analysis of thin client computing. It found that the overall annual TCO for thin clients is $5160/user compared to $5360/user for well managed fat clients and $6840/user for fat “unmanaged” computers. Gartner found a significant TCO difference based on effective administration and management of PC computer networks. Additionally, Gartner discovered a quick return on investment with a payback period of 3 months for thin clients compared with unmanaged PCs and eight months for thin clients compared to well managed PC networks. It warns that enterprises must analyze migration costs. Gartner Research (2001) summarizes, “Next to people, the network is the biggest ongoing cost in an IT budget. Thin clients–which provide remote access over low-bandwidth networks–can exploit the existing network infrastructure” (p. 5).

Thin Client Constraints

Thin client computing is not powerful enough to serve every application. Heavy graphics programs and some web design programs, computer aided design (CAD), computer aided manufacturing ( CAM), and voice recognition software will not function well on a thin client system.

Implementing Thin Client Computing

Migrating from one type of computing environment to another is complicated. Robinson (2004) suggests, “If you are planning a wholesale move to thin clients, make sure you have enough server capacity and memory to handle the load” (p. 1). During the MAR*TEC (2002) conference call, Reitz stated his belief that it is critical to employ someone with a good track history of thin clients in education. The usage of thin clients is relatively new to education, but there are a number of good people available. Reitz cautioned that building a thin client system in education is complex, and it is necessary to have the help of an outside integration company.

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MAR*TEC is interested in cataloging and sharing your experiences. If you have implemented a thin-client system, please e-mail Patricia Hendricks at phendric@temple.edu. We are interested in knowing the road blocks you confronted, your successes, and the information you now have that you wished you had known from the beginning.

References

Byte.com (1997). Thin clients: Behind the numbers. Retrieved April 2005, from http://www.byte.com/art/9704/sec6/art3.htm

Gartner Research. (2001). Thin-client vs. fat-client TCO. Retrieved April 2005, from http://h20202.www2.hp.com

Mid-Atlantic Regional Technology in Education Consortium (MAR*TEC). (2002). Building networks to support educational goals. Minutes from November 20, 2002 conference call. Retrieved April 2005, from http://www.temple.edu/martec/networks/10_28_02.html

Robinson, B. (2004, April). Building a thin-client strategy. Federal Computer Week. Retrieved April 2005, from http://www.fcw.com

Ziff Davis Media. (2004, September). Thin clients: Solving business problems at the point of data access. Retrieved April 2005, from http://www.getcentered.ziffdavis.com