The Zero-Client: The Next-Generation in Client Computing

As IT consumerization accelerates and data centers become more powerful, services can be delivered to thin-client and "zero client" devices.

The days of the PC, as we know it, are numbered. Corporations are already dealing with IT consumerization and demands around mobility, and the evolution of the data center has helped IT departments deliver more using a lot less. Current data center platforms have become the home of many new technologies. With more high-density and multi-tenancy computing, increased resiliency, and better overall resource utilization, many more organizations are centralizing their entire business model around their data center platform. Because we have better bandwidth and resource capabilities, cloud computing and virtualization have helped digitize the industry.

With that, comes the next-generation end-point. What’s the point of having big resource-intensive machines sitting at every user’s location? Why dedicate extra hours in repairs, maintenance and life cycle management? Why create this extra work when the entire end-user experience can now be delivered directly from your data center down to a tiny end-point device?

In fact, virtualization and compute technologies have come even further by allowing heavier, resource-intensive, applications to function better within the data center. For example, NVIDIA’s GRID pass-through technology allows you to directly integrate with the hypervisor and allocate full memory capabilities to a virtual machine – running on XenDesktop 7, for example. This virtual desktop can then be streamed down to a very small hardware footprint. Although GPU pass-through technology has been available in the past, the big difference is that we have better resource utilization for the virtual desktop and we can place more users per GPU.

Smaller, Faster End Points

In designing more efficient corporate environments, IT managers must look to end-points which are easier to manage, faster to deploy and require less overhead. The introduction of thin-clients paved the way for a small, easy to control end-point. The challenge, in many cases, has been the price. These terminals would still cost between $300 and $400. Many IT managers would argue that the minor savings in management were outweighed by performance gains that a bigger PC might deliver. Still, as the IT infrastructure continued to evolve, virtual applications, desktops, and the data center that supports it all became much more efficient. And, as a result, the end-point evolved. Here's a look at where we heading:

Vendors like nComputing and Wyse are working hard to replace the big PC end-point with better and more efficient computing platforms. New chips, more bandwidth, and faster networks are all simplifying the end-point and enhancing the data delivery process. As cloud computing and virtualization continue to pick up a bit steam, the end-point community will benefit. By creating an easy-to-manage end-point environment, managers can focus on improving the end-user experience without having to worry about the machine that they’re deploying. The ability to consistently deliver a fast and easy to access workload will create a more efficient (and happier) end-user.