The Future of Computing - SaaS, Cloud Computing & Thin Clients
October 21st, 2008 Posted in General
It’s not just the economy that is driving companies to SaaS and cloud computing environments, but it is sure helping. The concept of client-server based computing is not new, as a matter of fact it is very old. Those that remember "dumb clients" or "dummy terminals" know what I am talking about, it was around long before PC based computing. Most of you who work at large corporations already use client-server computing; does Citrix, Terminal Services, WYSE and VMWare sound familiar? This centralized architecture lowers overhead costs, simplifies administration and increases redundancy. Client-server based computing is making its way into the home soon too, Google Apps, Microsoft Office Online, Quicken Online, online picture and data storage becoming are more and more popular everyday.
Smaller businesses are slowly making their way back to this architecture, but the lack of knowledge or resources have made the transition slow. The condition of the economy has forced many small business owners to take a deeper look at their budgets, specifically in IT.
One of the areas of seeing the most growth is the use of online backup services. These solutions are now cheaper than tapes alone, not to mention the tape drives and the hassle and complexity involved with an old fashioned tape backup system. d2 Business Solutions secure online backup system known as d2Backup is just one of those services that has seen tremendous growth in the past year and was featured on Inc. Magazine’s web site. Other areas such as security, including hosted spam filters, web filters and anti-virus have have grown significantly. Some emerging areas are office, CRM or ERP applications delivered as a service (SaaS). These areas require a little more setup but have proven to cut costs drastically, create a predictable IT budget and help businesses to focus on their core objectives and not worry about IT.
Companies like Microsoft and Intel have been developing Internet centric devices for your home that don’t require a hard drive, dubbed NetTops or NetBooks. These devices not only need an Internet connection, but will require a subscription to a service for applications and processing duties being shared with the server.
Client-server computing is already the standard for the enterprise level and is set to be the new standard for home use, so now is the time for small businesses to start looking into adopting this platform.
Thanks and Happy Networking,
Matt Dubois
