Client Concepts

* Compare and contrast fat client and thin client concepts

* The pros and cons of each

* Provide examples to support your answers

Thin client is when the computer is designed to rely heavily on other computers to do its computing. Thin client relies on Web servers and often utilizes Intranet to help process information faster. An example of a thin client is a netbook. Thin client is more portable than fat clients and require a server to process large amounts of data. Thin clients are secure and usually cheaper than fat clients. Thin clients are easy to install and does not need a lot of extra software and programs. Most thin clients have no fans, hard drives, or memory as opposed to fat clients (full desktop PCs). All processing and storage is on a central server when using a thin client. Thin clients only offer a graphical user interface (GUI) to the end user.

Fat client is when the computer is designed to process a large amount of information itself and does not rely heavily on external computers to process requests. It uses its own resources and has many software and programs. You can easily store information and files. An example of a fat client is a personal computer that has a hard drive. Fat client often require more bandwidth than thin clients. Fat clients tend to have problems with security and privacy. Fat clients don’t need to continuously communicate with a server to process information.

thin client pros:

* cost effective compared to fat client hardware.

* easy to set up.

* cost-effective in power consumption.

* Cooling takes most money spent on company PCs and data centers so when using thin clients, the cost of cooling is lowered by a large margin since most thin clients do not need active cooling.

* A thin client allows use of strict security measures

* easy to maintain since their operating system and other software are on the main server

* increased longevity due to lack of moving parts.

cons of...