Robert,
I think you're touching upon an area that hasn't been clearly addressed here on the thread - Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). TCO(and speed of deployment) is the crux behind a company implementing thin-client.
I'm sure that virtually everyone on this thread has experienced that computer hang-ups, the rebooting, things not working the same way every time, etc. of owning a PC. What do you want for an $85 operating system and a $1-2k computer. Think about the time you've spent troubleshooting your PC, setting up programs, fiddling to get them to work and then, when they all of a sudden stop working, fiddling to get them to work again.
Put this type of scenario in a decent sized company and it magnifies. Contrary to popular opinion, the cost of owning a PC/workstation, in a company, costs from 30-40k per year. The 2-4k paid up front is a pittance or negligible.
Personally, I initially rejected these numbers when I saw the studies years ago. Subsequently, I sat by the cash register and watched the money go out(figuratively speaking). Deploying a program throughout a company cost more than you think. You've got to distribute the software, see that it is installed, see that it is setup in some standard way, train the user on how to use it(don't and they'll either not use it, so throw your investment thus far out, or they'll learn during working hours on their own, thus cut their productivity substantially and probably never really learn program well), etc. Thereafter, when the program breaks you've got to fix it. If there are bugs, install updates. And of course, train the user some more. You get the picture. Gets really hairy when you add multiple programs, network, modems, Internet, WAN, etc.
Computer guys to the rescue - network installs, automated configuration, computer based training, etc. - that'll fix. Well, from experience, computer guys are worse at controlling/managing costs. This "automation" often creates bureaucracy, you're dependant upon the computer-guy for everything. As an example, I've seen it take a month to install a single program on a single machine at a major US corporation. We had to wait for it's "automated" installation. (of course there are ways of dealing with all the foregoing).
Who else has experienced the same?
Well, Winframe is a reasonable, but not the only and not always the best, counter-force to such problems and costs. One application install is made. If it ever breaks you only have to fix it in one place. Everyone gets the same interface (reduced training costs - users share what they know). No additional software needs to be sent out, installed, configured. Everyone is on the same software version. Etc. TCO is significantly(significantly, not completely) reduced.
So, when some say that Citrix is "raping" people for $500/seat, they are really missing the boat. $500/seat is puny compared to the savings in TCO. FedX knows all about this as do government agencies and schools that are full-tilt on the road to implement thin-win. Please note that thin-win is not for every situation, just some.
Right now, there isn't any viable alternative and I don't know of any significant organization that is sucking their thumb waiting for MSFT to make the ideal thin-win. They'll buy Hyda with Picasso without a second thought.
Sure, some day evil MSFT will eat everyone(for reasons I'm not sure of), but for some time(years). Citrix will be working shoulder to shoulder with them. Check the press releases CTXS is in virtually all of them. That's the deal. -N |
