Should Thin Clients Replace Desktop PCs

Whenever possible, IDEOLITY encourages replacing desktop PCs with devices known as Thin Clients.  This is a particularly useful strategy for nonprofits, but works in many different office and manufacturing environments.

First, a Thin Client is a computer that typically does not have an operating system or a hard drive.  As a result, it can be quite compact in size, and there is very little that can go wrong. As a bonus, Thin Clients are generally much cheaper to support.

You are probably thinking, "If there is no Windows and no hard drive, how can it work?"  Great question! A Thin Client must connect to a remote server, generally known as a Terminal Server or Host.  The host server provides the familiar desktop experience, access to files, email, office productivity suite software, databases, etc.

So, in order to deploy Thin Clients, you must also deploy a Terminal Server. I know what you're thinking! Expensive! But, no: A single Terminal Server can support dozens of Thin Clients, so the incremental cost is negligible.

Many, if not most, of IDEOLITY's clients already have a Terminal Server.  We virtualize all servers these days, so spinning up a new one is pretty fast and simple.  Some clients deploy Thin Clients to all users; others have a tiered program in place that allows heavy users to use desktop PCs or workstations and lighter users to use Thin Clients.