Despite this increasing investment there is typically 10% or less of the software and hardware resources that are actually used on a regular basis - in effect you are paying for ready availability. And new initiatives, such as educational transformation, will require a modern and robust ICT infrastructure that needs to be flexible enough to support your school into the near future without the need for substantial reinvestment.

The traditional PC or fat client is not always the most cost-effective way to deliver the ICT resources that your school or academy may need. Many schools are now beginning to benefit from thin computing solutions. These are not only helping to reduce ICT costs but are also extending the reach of learning into student’s homes.

Thin computing

Thin computing is where the application software, data and processing power reside on a network server rather than on individual computers. To the end user of the device, a thin client looks and behaves like an ordinary PC, but this approach offers significant benefits over the traditional desktop and laptop PC infrastructure commonly favoured by many schools.

The major elements of a thin computing solution are:

Application server - This is the workhorse of the thin computing environment, where all the applications required by the users are installed. An application server can work with other servers, networked together to form a server farm. These additional servers, used for data storage, e-mail, Web hosting and other services, should be physically located as to close the application server as possible to reduce overall network traffic.

Thin client device - Any hardware device connected to the application server via the thin client protocol is called a thin client device. Virtually any new or legacy PC can be connected and run as a thin client as well as being used as a traditional PC for localised work. However the term thin client is also used to describe a particular type of hardware device that is optimised for use in this environment. In this case a thin client is smaller than a typical desktop PC and contains fewer parts to go wrong (typically it contains a processor, Ethernet network capability, a video subsystem and enough memory to run the software to connect to the server). It does not have a disk drive and is usually purchased in a sealed case without openings. Thin client devices like these usually last longer, require less energy to operate and are easier to upgrade. They have the added advantage that they can be used to access more than server based Windows applications.

Network infrastructure - The connection between the server and the thin client device needs to be of the right bandwidth to ensure that users are not affected by slow data transmission rates. Unlike fat clients which need to access the network to download programs and data, thin clients only exchange small packets of information (usually keystrokes and display changes). Consequently high speed connections are only necessary between servers. The connection between the thin client devices and the server can be at a greatly reduced speed and accordingly cost.

Application software - Most software applications can be accessed by a thin client. It is important that, as part of the implementation process, the compatibility and suitability of applications should be thoroughly tested to ensure that no problems will later occur

Thin computing offers the best of both the PC (distributed) model and the mainframe (centralised) model of computing and as such represents the next phase in the evolution of computing.