Thin Clients VS Thick (fat) Clients

Pickaxes and Shovels Thin Clients VS Thick (fat) Clients

What is a thick (fat) client • From Wikipedia • No a thick client isnt another term for a dumb user • A fat client (also called heavy, rich, or thick client) is a computer (client) in client–server architecture or networks that typically provides rich functionality independent of the central server. Originally known as just a "client" or "thick client"[1] the name is contrasted to thin client, which describes a computer heavily dependent on a server's applications.

Thick client system • The main difference between thin and fat client systems has to do with how much processing is done on the desktop vs. on a server, and, in essence, how your company wishes to deploy computer and network resources. In a fat client system, a significant amount of processing is done on the client or desktop system, while relatively little is done on the server. This setup requires expensive desktop systems on every user's desk, and relatively little in the way of high-end networking or server systems, as they perform less of the overall processing than the desktop system.

Advantages of thick clients • Lower server requirements. A thick client server does not require as high a level of performance as a thin client server (since the thick clients themselves do much of the application processing). This results in drastically cheaper servers. • Working offline. Thick clients have advantages in that a constant connection to the central server is often not required. • Better multimedia performance. Thick clients have advantages in multimedia-rich applications that would be bandwidth intensive if fully served. For example, thick clients are well suited for video gaming.

More flexibility. On some operating systems software products are designed for personal computers that have their own local resources. Running this software in a thin client environment can be difficult. • Using existing infrastructure. As many people now have very fast local PCs, they already have the infrastructure to run thick clients at no extra cost. • Higher server capacity. The more work that is carried out by the client, the less the server needs to do, increasing the number of users each server can support.

What is a thin client • From Wikipedia • Anyone that pays you more then $200 a month • A thin client (sometimes also called a lean or slim client) is a computer or a computer program which depends heavily on some other computer (its server) to fulfill its traditional computational roles. This stands in contrast to the traditional fat client, a computer designed to take on these roles by itself. The exact roles assumed by the server may vary, from providing data persistence (for example, for diskless nodes) to actual information processing on the client's behalf.

Thin client system • Conversely, thin client systems can be as thin as a simple browser interface running on a relatively low-end PC • In this case the bulk of the processing is done elsewhere, and that means you'll need a lot of network resources and more robust server technology than you would need in a fat client system.

Does size matter

Hardware

Thin client support • Terminal Services (aka: RDS, Hosted Shared Desktop, or Session-based Virtualization), VDI and Desktop as a Service. • At a purely technical layer, they are not that different, especially now that Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems are finally the exact same code base. Since the client and server offerings from Microsoft are basically different product lines based on the same OS, their desktops can look and behave exactly the same, support the exact same set of APIs and the same device drivers (printer problems anyone?). • This means that from a technical perspective all applications and any associated peripheral devices can be equally supported within the Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 based desktops.

VDI or Centralized Virtual Desktops • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is one such alternative desktop deployment model for Windows 7. Instead of running a local copy on each user’s desktop, you create and store a common image on one or more servers in the datacenter. You then deploy this image to a server running a hypervisor.

There are several benefits to implementing a VDI infrastructure

You can rapidly deploy a common supported desktop environment by creating a single Windows 7 desktop image. Use that image to deploy virtual machines (VMs) on your provisioning server or hypervisor. In that way, a single server can support many virtual desktops. Each of these desktops reacts as a standalone Windows 7 desktop. Unlike using Remote Desktop Services (RDS), the users connecting to a virtual desktop can have full access to all features of that VM without impacting the other virtual desktops or the host server. Your users could still use the Remote Desktop Connection client to connect to their virtual desktop.

You can make centralized updates and changes to Windows 7 by updating the desktop image, then redeploying that updated image to all your users. The next time they log on, they’ll have the updated image with the rest of their settings maintained. • If there’s a problem with an update that requires a rollback to a previous version of the desktop image, you can do that quickly and easily. Save a copy of the previous image before performing the update. That way, you can roll back by redeploying the previous image if needed. When your users log off and log back on, they’ll receive the previous image.

Xendesktop • Citrix XenDesktop is a suite of desktop virtualization products from software provider Citrix Systems. Through its bundled components, XenDesktop can deliver several different types of virtual desktops: • Individual applications can be hosted on a server and accessed remotely or be streamed as needed to a client device.

Types of Xendesktops • Hosted shared desktops (XenApp) - multiple users can access a single shared Remote Desktop Services (formerly Terminal Services) desktop. • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) desktops - each user has their own virtual machine that runs on a server and is accessed and controlled using a remote display protocol.

Streaming disk images - desktop images are created on a server (Citrix Provisioning Server) and streamed to the client device as needed. Processing takes place on the client device. • Local virtual machine - a virtual machine is stored and runs locally on a client device, utilizing a client hypervisor (XenClient). The image can be synced with a master image on a server as needed.

Access to Xendesktop • Citrix Receiver allows a wide variety of client devices to access XenDesktop virtual desktops. Versions are available for Windows, Windows Mobile, Mac OS X, iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, Blackberry, Linux, thin clients, and zero clients. • BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)

Latest Option • Hosted windows from a Service Provider

Final Thoughts

Q & A Pickaxes and Shovels Thin Clients VS Thick (fat) Clients

Thin Clients VS Thick (fat) Clients