It is very easy, when thinking about Cloud provisioning, to allow oneself to wallow gloriously in the details data centre infrastructures. Issues such as the integration of in-house resources with those provided by wholesale data centre facilities vendors, other colocation options, hosted services, fully managed services, SaaS and the rest provide enough options for anyone to contemplate. And then again, what shall we virtualise today? But what about the other end of the line?
For most implementations there are normally only two choices – the PC or the dumb thin client – and both have their issues. The PC has too many to list here but, while it suits many people, from the home user to corporate road warrior, the PC’s implementation and support issues for most business users are normally considered amongst its less attractive `features’.
On the other side there is the thin client, which can be a great deal cheaper to buy, and whole lot easier to implement and maintain. But their downside has traditionally been sees as limited functionality and operational inflexibility – only useful for those people who sit in one place and do one job, or a limited, regimented set of them. The real world, as always, really needs a bit of both.
That is now coming, and the recent pace of development in virtualised desktop solutions and what they can deliver opens up some interesting possibilities. For example, the long-established divide between `lowly’ desk-bound thin client users and the `real-men’ power users that require the fattest, fastest laptops, is going to break down – not least because it is often the latter who open business networks and information to the most risk when they try to log on from a hotel wireless connection. It would not be the first time I have heard quite senior execs moaning about the hassle of logging on in those circumstances and boasting of how they by-passed the in-built security provisions to save time.
But technology moves on. The thin client dongle is becoming a feasible option, for example. The key here is the way that the client users are identified. Most systems now, even if the users are desk-bound, have a variation on the theme of identifying and authenticating the user as the route to granting them access to their work environment. Increasingly, that entire work environment is back on the server, under proper management and with no data allowed to be resident on the client system. The best solutions are transmitting just a video image back and forward. This means that the client can be a dedicated thin client or any old PC left lying about. Usually the major test is whether it will run a suitable browser.
Now, put that capability into a dongle – usually based on a USB memory stick – and the user get an authentication mechanism that allows their laptop PC to become a thin client once connected to the corporate network. With the right security in place, that laptop can be anywhere a connection can be made; and the user gets two environments, their offline one which can include work files if required, and their online business one, run totally back on the server.
Now extend that idea much further and think about what might be possible with such an approach, especially for a service provider that fancied following the mobile phone contract model – `give’ the phone to the user as part of the contract. Give users a personal client of some kind and they will love you for the duration of the contract…… and use your service regularly.
Bundle together a bunch of related, collaborative services (rather like a satellite or cable TV service package) and front it with a `free’ client that only connects to the services – or for an extra charge allows access to an isolated and well-defended browser for personal use – and Cloud-based captive markets could be readily be created.
What is more, they could become the key brands for groups of services. An example: BASDA is the trade association for all those companies in the accounting software business. There are some members offering general applications and service providers, and some specialists. Now, imagine a BASDA client (maybe even as small as a Blackberry or iPhone on Steroids) linked to a service package of accounting and business management services (let’s not forget Netsuite is a BASDA member, so I assume that could make a reasonable start point).
Now, let’s assume my accountant says to me “I’ll do your accounts for £x a year in the traditional way, or £x-y if you have this `totally free’ online gizmo through which to report all your transactions as they occur. That way, you won’t forget, as you normally do.”
It’ll cost me less because I’m doing most of the actual work, and most of their work will be automated back at the server once I’ve sent them my latest data. And best of all, I’ll probably say yes because it’ll have a BASDA brand and I’ll feel good about that. So the client is no longer just that PC on the desk or the laptop in the bag. It could in fact be the key to unlock a huge Cloud-based business potential.
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