Thin-client model strives for Thinergy

By John Cox
Network World Fusion, 9/2/98

Orlando, Fla. - You can sift through the press releases at this, the first trade show for the Windows thin-client market, searching for big, dramatic product announcements, but you won't find any.

And that's why everyone is here.

Thinnergy '98 is less about launching a new model of computing than about testifying to the fact that the model already exists. Multi-user NT is a proven technology. However, it has just been released on NT Server 4.0 as Microsoft Terminal Server Edition (TSE). There are also plenty of applications and a thoroughly experienced, and fast-growing, army of resellers and integrators.

And most of all, there appear to be a lot of corporate MIS groups that understand the benefits of a Windows thin-client: being able to centralize Windows applications on one or more servers and let end users access the applications with existing PCs, old 486-based models or from a new breed of Windows terminals.

Thinergy may be most important if it can at least start to document the maintenance and administrative savings of turning to thin clients or if it can show how broadly a Windows thin client can be applied in corporate settings.

In all of this, Microsoft, which licensed the multi-user code from partner Citrix Systems, the show's sponsor, is something of a bystander. So far, most of the Windows NT 4 work has been carried out by Citrix engineers, and much of the training of the Microsoft sales and support staffs has been done by Citrix.

From the start of its licensing agreement some 18 months ago, Microsoft has positioned TSE and thin clients as a niche market geared toward replacing Unix and mainframe terminals used by "task-oriented workers" such as data-entry clerks and call center operators.

But almost none of the integrators and other hardware and software vendors agree.

"[The market] is already broader than terminal replacement," says Laura Staley, senior product manager for NCR's Enterprise NT Business Group. "We have several customers who want to [use TSE to] centralize data and computer systems, and who have small branches all over the U.S. Some of them, all over the globe. They want to replace what they have on the desktop and get at Microsoft Office '97 and, almost always, a customized business application."

TSE is, astonishingly, already spawning a new market: enabling start-ups and Internet service providers to create new application services. These subscription services are established by ISPs and start-ups loading applications on big NT server farms and then renting access to the applications over high-speed networks.

"I think Microsoft has had a big awakening since PC Expo in June [when TSE was formally launched]," Staley says.

Among the announcement being made this week at Thinergy:

NCR unveiled a new performance optimization tool for TSE, called NCR PerforMUNT, which assigns user sessions to specific processors in a multi-CPU server and automatically tunes the server for maximum performance.
Addonics Communications demonstrates a new line of Windows-based terminals, which use Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol to link to the server, has a built-in Web browser and an optional 12.1-inch LCD flat-panel display. The OEM pricing is likely to be under $500, and a bit more for the flat-screen.
Esprit Systems is also offering new Window-based terminals, one using only ICA, the other adding Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).
WRQ rolled out its Reflection terminal emulation package for TSE, and Version 4.0 of Express Meter, which can now track and control software usage for each user session on a TSE server. Express Meter can track usage based on client device, user name and separate WinFrame servers. (WinFrame, developed by Citrix, is the predecessor and basis of TSE.)