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An estimated 400 million PCs are in line
to be upgraded to Microsoft's new Vista operating system, at a potential cost of
$3,000 to $5,000 per machine. Meanwhile, providing adequate network security
seems to be getting more difficult, particularly for applications. Network
access control is expensive and doesn't stop application attacks. Neither does
endpoint security. In addition, as we all know, users are the weakest link in
the network security chain.
Those are among the assessments executives at Citrix provided at the company's
recent customer conference, iForum-an almost evangelical gathering of those who
consider today's "fat" PCs as both too much and too little. Too much in the way
of what is needed in a PC for most employees, and too little in the way of
providing security and cost efficiencies.
Their alternative: basic workstations-or thin-client PCs-that gain their
capabilities from the network rather than from themselves. These solutions,
currently representing less than 15% of the workstations in use, are touted by
Citrix and its many partners as more easily and securely secured and far less
expensive than their overstuffed brethren.
The goal of the "Citrix movement," CEO Mark Templeton says, is to connect users
so that they can work from anywhere. The technology offers some compelling
advantages that coincide with the issues most important to IT managers-security,
lower costs, delivery optimization, low-cost conferencing and proactive
monitoring and diagnostics.
For example, suggests Citrix Vice President David Jones, organizations planning
to upgrade to Vista would save as much as half that estimated $3,000 to $5,000
per PC using the thin client approach. Only one Vista installation would be
needed-in the data center-and subsequent patches or updates would have to be
done only in the data center.
"The technology works best for distributed, diverse companies," he explains,
allowing employees in branch offices to access company applications from
virtually any PC anywhere.
The Citrix movement has some challenges, however. It has grown slowly, almost
organically, with little broad-based marketing to enterprise IT managers. Many
of the companies riding Citrix's coattails with related products of their own
are fairly small and unknown outside the relatively small thin client community.
In addition, not every fat PC is a candidate to switch over to the thin client
model.
This community may indeed have a better solution for those IT managers whose
networks could take advantage of the pluses associated with the Citrix movement.
Unfortunately, as even one Citrix executive expressed to me, the vendors in this
space need to do a better job of educating potential buyers. Given how deeply
the current PC culture is embedded, if that audience isn't educated, the
opportunity to take advantage of what Jones calls a "tremendous sweet spot"
concerning the refreshing of those 400 million PCs will be lost.
kanderberg@comnews.com
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