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April 26, 2005
Thin-Client Vendors Bulk Up With Software
Although hardware is still a key part of their businesses, top thin-client vendors are working to expand their software expertise.
New Wyse Technology Inc. President and CEO John Kish came to the San Jose, Calif., company about six months ago after more than 15 years at Oracle Corp. and several years with startups. Most of the new executives Kish has brought in have software backgrounds.
"Wyse is a company looking to extend the architecture," Kish said. "What is a thin client really? What they are is software and hardware, not just hardware."
For its part, Neoware Systems Inc. since the beginning of the year has bought four businesses, including two European-based software companies.
Thin clients are designed to offer businesses better management and security than traditional PCs can and at a lower cost. Desktop devices are linked to back-end servers, which hold key components such as hard drives and processors.
Market research company IDC, of Framingham, Mass., expects the thin-client industry to continue to grow from about 1.78 million units shipped last year to 3.4 million by 2007. While thin clients represent about 2 percent of the overall PC market, that share could grow to as much as 10 percent, said Michael Kantrowitz, chairman and CEO of Neoware, in King of Prussia, Pa.
Software will be key to that growth, Wyse and Neoware officials say.
Posted by editor at 02:10 PM
April 21, 2005
The return of the thin client
In the mid-1990s Sun and Oracle hailed thin client devices as the successors to business PCs. Today it looks as though technology has caught up with the vision. Jessica Twentyman reviews the pros and cons of replacing traditional PCs with simpler units which are cheap, versatile and easy to manage
Bloated, expensive and unmanageable: for many IT directors, the corporate desktop PC has become a monster they can no longer control. They are locked, they say, into an almost-constant battle with this beast, struggling to manage applications, upgrade software patches and maintain machines scattered throughout the company, built from different components to multiple specifications.
This has led to spiralling costs. Analysts at IT market research company Gartner estimate that, although the average cost of a typical corporate desktop is just £425, the lifetime cost of each machine is likely to be nearer £2,000.
No wonder then that many IT directors have had enough, especially those that have achieved efficiencies in the datacentre by consolidating and virtualising server and storage resources, and who are not prepared to see those gains obviated by the costs of running the corporate desktop estate.
As a result, many are taking another look at an old idea: network computing. Back in the mid-1990s, Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison and Sun Microsystems' chief executive Scott McNealy boasted that the so-called 'network computer' - essentially a thin client device used to access applications and information running on a back-end server - would in time kill off the corporate PC.
However, their vision - in reality, a thinly disguised broadside against the growing dominance of software giant Microsoft - was flawed. In particular, it placed heavy constraints on end-users. Only relatively simple applications were suited to the centralised approach they proposed, and fewer still could cope with the paucity of bandwidth available over pre-megabit Ethernet networks.
A lot has changed since then. Network bandwidth is now plentiful and there are very few applications that cannot be delivered effectively over a thin client architecture. According to Fraser Kyne, field product marketing manager at thin client software specialist Citrix, 95% of applications typically found on a corporate PC can be accessed by a thin client from a server running Citrix's Metaframe product.
That makes the thin client an attractive proposition for many organisations. According to Gartner, approximately 1.3 million thin client terminal hardware units were shipped in the worldwide market in 2003 - the most recent year for which figures are available - an increase of 18% compared with 2002.
However, the appeal of a thin client system architecture does not depend merely on it being cheaper to purchase than a PC-based equivalent. The main attraction for IT directors is the opportunity to remove valuable software and data assets from the desktop and relocate them in the datacentre, where they are not only more secure but also easier and cheaper to manage and maintain.
'Manageability is one of the key benefits of a thin client, or network-centric architecture approach. Thin client computing offers centralised management, enabling rapid deployment of new applications, easier and faster support for end-users and greater control over the use of systems,' says David Angwin, senior regional marketing manager for EMEA at Wyse Technology.
Companies that have taken the plunge and moved their PC estate to a thin client environment, he says, enjoy a 40% to 67% reduction in total cost of ownership.
Added to that are the benefits of greater security and reliability. 'You have got safer data and greater business continuity because all data resides on the server. And you are likely to see fewer breakdowns, greater data integrity and better uptime,' says Angwin.
Plenty of companies are taking advantage of this kind of architecture, he says: in healthcare, where small size and remote management are critical; in retail, to connect to local peripherals such as cash drawers and credit card readers; in call centres; and in manufacturing plants where dusty environments can lead to problems with fan-equipped PCs.
Migrating to a thin client environment also offers an opportunity for organisations to consolidate their IT infrastructures, says Lisa Hammond, chief executive at IT consulting company Centrix. One client, she says, needed to consolidate 38 buildings into a new London-based HQ and, at the same time, provide flexible working facilities for its staff. But the existing complexity of the technology architecture was a barrier: 2,500 applications and 670 servers.
Centrix was able to rationalise the number of 'necessary' applications to less than 200 and moved them to a central datacentre from where they are now accessed through thin client devices. The overall consolidation programme was shortened by more than 12 months using that approach, says Hammond, and saved 'millions of pounds'.
'The centralisation of the majority of existing applications to provide thin client services is a highly effective way to substantially reduce the cost of a desktop migration. The largest saving we have seen from that kind of project is £39m over three years,' she adds.
Ian Davie, business development manager at IT systems integration company Morse, agrees that thin clients are helping companies to rationalise their IT infrastructures. 'Thin client computing has helped many of our clients solve the problem of how to deploy and make available applications to a global workforce, including remote workers.
'There are huge benefits in administration for these businesses: imagine having to make an update to an application that resides on 500 desktops. Instead, they now only have to update it once on the server with the thin client model.'
Despite such claims, there are, however, two substantial barriers to the uptake of thin clients. First is the reluctance of users to give up their PCs. 'Personal' computers are seen as just that: a symbol of status within an organisation that offers the individual a degree of flexibility and freedom that they have come to expect as a right rather than a privilege.
But new approaches to thin client computing promise to tackle this issue - in particular, the emergence of the blade PC. This device offers the same opportunity to re-house desktop applications and data in the datacentre, but goes one step further by implementing entire PCs as blades housed in a server rack.
This has distinct advantages over traditional thin client approaches. By implementing a PC as a remote physical device in its own right, as opposed to a logical image hosted on a server, the blade PC retains the individuality that users demand. Each PC blade, for instance, can be configured to support the same physical characteristics of an individual PC, exactly emulating a user's required configuration.
The second barrier to the uptake of thin client computing is that IT directors are cautious about undermining their investments in existing 'fat' infrastructure. 'They recognise the benefits of centralised management, application deployment and control coupled with reduced support costs, but they are often put off by the technology's inability to address the migration of heavily relied upon legacy or heavily graphical applications to work effectively in a thin-client environment,' says Andy Irving, global sales manager at ThinTop Technologies.
There are ways around this, he says. ThinTop's software, for example, enables the IT department to lock down PCs to stop users changing settings and installing or launching unauthorised applications at the same time as providing them with a business-focused desktop, which gives them the features and functions they need to perform their prescribed roles. This turns the existing infrastructure into a server-based computing environment in which PCs effectively become thin client devices.
It is hardly surprising then that thin-client sales are, in Gartner's parlance, 'soaring'. It might be hasty to forecast the death of the traditional PC - as Ellison and McNealy did in 1997 - but alternative desktop system sales are currently surging ahead of PC growth.
In volume terms, thin clients still have a long way to go to catch up, but it is not unfeasible that they will do so. Gartner analysts are already predicting that, as early as 2008, the 'monstrous' PC that currently creates such nightmares for the IT department will be a standard feature on fewer than 50% of corporate desktops.
What is a thin client?
In essence, a thin client is a desktop device connected over the corporate network to a central server. The desktop device looks like a PC, but is actually much simpler: all application processing and storage is done on the server and the thin client is simply a device for input, output and display, which transmits keystrokes and mouse clicks to the server and displays on the end-user's monitor what the server is doing.
This requires the server to run specialist software such as Citrix Metaframe or Microsoft Terminal Server. These create virtual PCs within the server, complete with operating system, registries, IP addresses and other features required by standard PC applications.
There are many benefits to the thin client approach. A thin client does not require a hard drive, a floppy drive, or the latest CPU: it only has to drive the display and transfer input/output bit streams to the server. The thin client uses less power than a PC, and because it has no moving parts, less memory, and a CPU that generates less heat, it does not require a fan.
As a result, thin client devices are considerably less costly to buy than desktop PCs. The average selling price for thin clients, say Gartner analysts, dropped from £350 in 1999 to £200 in 2003.
According to Gartner, Wyse Technology was the number one supplier in the worldwide thin-client market in 2003 (the most recent year for which figures are available) with a 42% market share.
Neoware Systems was in second place with a 17% market share and the third-place supplier was Hewlett-Packard with 11%. Together, Wyse, Neoware and HP accounted for 70% of the worldwide market in 2003.
Are thin clients right for you?
Gartner analyst Mark Margevicius says IT directors should consider migrating to a thin-client architecture if their organisations:
* Demand high security
* Have limited floor space
* Have structured-task workers (for example, in a call centre)
* Plan to re-purpose PCs for new functionality
* Are interested in providing applications as a service
* Have little or no client manageability
* Have predictable client application requirements
* Deploy applications that do not consume significant client resources
* Are looking for ways to reduce the total cost of ownership of the client software architecture.
Posted by editor at 03:53 PM
New Thin Client Initiative at Microsoft
Microsoft is developing 2 new "Server Centric Computing Clients" these clients are based on windows XP, so these will be "thin" clients for Terminal server purposes.
From Bink.nu
Microsoft wants to make Windows the platform of choice for server centric computing by offering new feature rich Windows SKUs for our enterprise and academic customers by providing management and servicing features parity with Windows XP Pro. These clients will offer innovative alternative to the traditional desktop for legacy PCs, low-end PCs, thin client devices and task workers.
Customers complain that Windows XP Pro too expensive for Structured Task Workers. Other request are:
- Need of one set of security, manageability & serviceability technologies across all clients
- Disparity of HW requires broad driver support
- Remote Bootable (network / diskless)
- 3rd Party Anti-Virus & Management support
- Easy Shell Lock DownSmart App Install BlockingCodename
"Eiger" is the thin-ist of the two and has less features then "Mönch" client. See tables below for details:
Windows XP "Eiger"
Minimum System Requirements
64MB RAM (128MB Recommended)
Pentium class processor
500 MB HD (1GB recommended)
800x600 graphics or higher
Network Interface Card
Hardware Support
Standard & ACPI Chipsets
ISA, PCI, AGP, USB, ATA/IDE, SCSI, AC’97, Smartcards
Support for most standard components in legacy PCs
Deployment Methods
Setup wizard
Unattended setup
Remote Installation Server (PXE/RIS)
Systems Management Server
Boot Methods
Hard Disk, Flash
PXE/RIS
User Feature Set
Remote desktop connection client
Shutdown, restart, standby
Accessibility features
Internet Explorer
Local & Network Printing
Basic Control Panel
Office Viewers
Servicing
Windows Update Services
Systems Management Server
Management
Standard Microsoft management technologies (WMI, MMC …)
Not supported
Windows image acquisition (WIA)
Telephony, VPN & Dial-up
Wireless networking (802.11)
Windows XP "Mönch"
Minimum System Requirements
64MB RAM (128MB Recommended)
Pentium class processor
500 MB HD (1GB recommended)
800x600 graphics or higher
Network Interface Card
Hardware Support
Standard & ACPI Chipsets
ISA, PCI, AGP, USB, ATA/IDE, SCSI, AC’97, Smartcards
Support for most standard components in legacy PCs
Deployment Methods
Setup wizard
Unattended setup
Remote Installation Server (PXE/RIS)
Systems Management Server
Boot Methods
Hard Disk, UFD, Flash
PXE/RIS
Multicast Remote Boot (over PGM)
User Feature Set
All Windows “Eiger” Features plus…
Windows Devices (PDA, Smartphone, …)
Windows image acquisition (WIA)
Wireless networking auth (802.1X)
VPN Support
Advanced IP Security
Servicing
Windows Update Services
Systems Management Server
Management
Standard Microsoft management technologies (WMI, MMC …)
Not supported
Telephony, Dial-up
Funny fact: just like previous Microsoft Windows codenames, Whistler and Blackcomb, Eiger and Mönch are mountains. Whistler and Blackcomb are in British Columbia, Eiger and Mönch in Switzerland: http://www.about.ch/cantons/bern/eiger_moench_jungfrau.html
And there is a third mountain: Jungfrau, so maybe another Windows project?
Posted by editor at 03:26 PM
April 12, 2005
Wincor Nixdorf and Linux
Novell ships new POS tweaked version of Linux and Wincor-Nixdorf is going to use it (that also means IBM would somewhat as well since they resell Wincor to degree)
Apr. 11, 2005
Novell will ship a new version of its Linux-based POS (point-of-sales/service) software in Q2, 2005. Novell Point of Service 9 (POS9) encompasses both central server and client software, and will be resold by POS giant IBM, as well as bank and retailer POS specialist Wincor-Nixdorf.
Novell calls POS9 "the only Linux distribution designed specifically for retail point of service." It comprises images for a variety of POS client and server systems. The smallest image has a 30MB footprint and requires only 64MB of RAM, Novell says, while the largest offers a comprehensive back-office platform, including desktop software, a browser, and productivity software.
POS9 is based on SuSE Linux, which Novell acquired in November, 2003. Novell was rumored to be looking to acquire an embedded Linux vendor a year ago. However, Novell also acquired substantial embedded experience and expertise when it bought SuSE.
Longtime SuSE user and recent Novell investor IBM will base the next version of its IBM Retail Environment for SuSE Linux on POS9, Novell says. According to Novell, IBM is the world's largest vendor of POS systems.
Additionally, Novell has partnered with Wincor-Nixdorf, one of the first POS device vendors to embrace Linux. Wincor-Nixdorf partnered with Red Hat in October of 2000 on Linux firmware for its BEETLE POS device. The BEETLE boasted 600,000 installations within two years, Wincor-Nixdorf said, and was deployed by high-profile customers such as Home Depot and Papa John's, among others.
Wincor-Nixdorf says the deal with Novell around POS9 will enable it to extend its offerings to include Linux servers that can centrally manage a network of POS clients.
Michael Prince, CIO of Novell POS software user Burlington Coat Factory, said, "Linux gives us a level of reliability that retailers never could have afforded before. The systems in our retail stores are so stable they can run for six months or more without being rebooted, and we have yet to see a virus attack."
Linux is the fastest growing OS in retail POS systems, according to a 2003 study by IHL Consulting Group. However, Microsoft has shown increasing interest in what it calls the "point-of-service" market, announcing in October a version of Windows XP Embedded aimed at the retail and hospitality industries. Embedded Linux distributor LynuxWorks, meanwhile, began shipping a Linux-based POS environment in January.
Posted by editor at 02:26 PM
April 11, 2005
Debian thin-client version
Ubuntu - The latest version of the Debian offshoot includes software for creating customised CDs you can run the OS from. Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, told ZDNet UK on Monday that the next release will include a version tailored for the thin client environment. This will allow the Linux distribution to be used on low specification PCs that don't have a hard drive. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050411/152/fg3el.html
Posted by editor at 06:38 PM
Acquisition of Wyse Finalized
Garnett & Helfrich Capital, a private equity firm specializing in Venture Buyouts (VBO), announced it has acquired a controlling equity stake in the market leading thin-client vendor, San Jose, Calif.-based Wyse Technology, for $35 million. Wyse operates in all major enterprise markets around the world and sells over $175 million of software and hardware systems each year.
Garnett & Helfrich Capital purchased a controlling stake in Wyse from the Koos Group located in Taiwan, who will retain an ownership position in the company. Garnett & Helfrich Capital and the Koos Group will work together to bolster Wyse's software business and support the company's movement into underserved Asian markets.
This acquisition represents Garnett & Helfrich Capital's first venture buyout transaction since the firm's inception, an approach that employs the entrepreneurial background and operational experience of its founders, Terry Garnett and David Helfrich, to reposition portfolio companies for substantial growth based on new management, product and market strategies.
"In line with our venture buyout approach, we look forward to playing an active role in shaping Wyse's corporate and product strategy," said David Helfrich, managing director, Garnett & Helfrich Capital. "With 35 percent market share in the fastest growing segment of the PC market, an impressive roster of customers that includes FedEx, Best Buy Canada, Circuit City and Quaker Foods, and longstanding partnerships with Citrix, Microsoft and Dell, Wyse is well-positioned to expand its global leadership."
Wyse Technology, founded in 1981, introduced the industry's first Windows-based terminal in 1995. Today, Wyse counts over 40 percent of the Fortune 100 as customers and is the worldwide leader in thin-clients with 35 percent market share according to analyst firm IDC.
"The enterprise market is moving to a centralized blade server model with secure, easy-to-maintain thin-client desktops and Wyse is the leader in delivering this solution," said Terry Garnett, managing director, Garnett & Helfrich Capital. "This will develop into a multi-billion dollar market over the next three to five years and Wyse is poised to capture a large share of this fast growing segment."
John Kish, previously a CEO-in-residence at Garnett & Helfrich Capital has assumed the CEO position at Wyse Technology and has recruited a world-class team of executives to join him at the Company. Kish is credited with establishing Oracle's Desktop Division and growing the division to $400 million in revenue during his 8 year career at the Company. John was one of the leading spokespeople in the industry for thin-client computing during the 1990s in his role at Oracle.
A team of attorneys from O'Melveny & Myers LLP, led by David Makarechian represented Garnett & Helfrich Capital on the transaction.
About Garnett & Helfrich Capital
Garnett & Helfrich Capital is the first fund to focus exclusively on the emerging venture buyout segment for mid-sized technology spinouts. Formed in March 2004 with $250,250,000 in capital from Harvard, Stanford, Grove Street and Harbourvest, the firm will invest in spinout partnerships with large global technology companies in the enterprise software, communications and networking, semiconductors, and Internet content/infrastructure segments of the technology industry. The principals, Terry Garnett and David Helfrich, have over 30 years of collective operating experience in senior roles at Oracle, Ascend Communications, 3COM, Tandem and Newbridge Networks as well as 15 years of venture capital investment experience at Venrock and ComVentures prior to founding Garnett Helfrich Capital. Their prior venture capital investments have included Checkpoint Software, Siebel, Niku, CoSine and P-Cube. More information is available at www.garnetthelfrich.com.
About Koos Group
As far back as the 1950s, Koos Group has been an integral part of Taiwan's economy, apparent at every stage of its development. To date, the Group is involved in a vast range of industries, some of which include petro-chemicals, electronics, cement, manufacturing, financial services and banking. In all, Koos Group encompasses over 80 companies, with more than 20,000 employees worldwide. Total assets of the Group amount to over $25 billion. It has financial interest in more publicly-traded companies than any other single business concern, and has by far the most expansive global reach among its competitors.
About Wyse Technology
Wyse is the #1 vendor that the world's largest businesses and institutions trust for scalable network-centric computing solutions. Wyse provides the hardware, software, and services that shift computing complexity to the network, liberating IT departments from unnecessary support and maintenance functions, empowering users to be more productive in their jobs, and protecting and improving access to critical information and business applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California with offices worldwide, Wyse has been #1 in thin-client market share for the last seven years, and has been named Microsoft "Embedded Partner of the Year" for three years. Wyse customers include FedEx, Best Buy (Canada), Quaker Foods, Gold's Gym, and CON-WAY Transportation.
Source: Garnett & Helfrich Capital
Posted by editor at 06:35 PM