Does Thin = Cloud? Not necessarily

catherine.spence@intel.com — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:33:03 GMT

In a recent TechRepublic article, Jason Hiner asks: Are Netbooks quietly driving us to Thin Clients and Cloud Computing?

Of course, the article is primarily about netbooks and how wonderful they are. No argument here. But the question of thin versus cloud has popped up in an interesting way. Thin is important because of the nature of the netbook but what does that have to do with cloud computing? Not all cloud applications are thin.

Perhaps the logic is as follows:

If cloud then we are delivering services over the internet
If internet then we must be using a browser
If browser then the computing must be taking place in the backend with only the UI distributed to the client device
Therefore all cloud devices must be thin

So what about rich clients? We happen to think that they are perfectly suited to cloud computing. Maybe our latest whitepaper on Better Together: Rich Clients and Cloud Computing can help set the record straight – or at least prompt some alternate thinking.

Cloud & Consumerization

catherine.spence@intel.com — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:57:07 GMT

As we abstract IT services and increase the use of SaaS and Cloud Computing, we contend with the force of consumerization. We are seeing a fundamental shift from enterprise focus to internet; and a shift from standardized offerings to user selection and personalization in choice of applications and client devices.

How can we improve agility and manage emerging complexity while balancing quality of service with innovation for different types of applications? For some, large scale abstraction leads to efficiencies for commoditized functions, whether they are hosted in house or outsourced. Other applications benefit from a more ad-hoc approach and might be more easily sourced from the cloud. IT will not be successful if we too tightly control services. Instead we must create a framework for our users to make smart choices.

IT@Intel Client Blog

Does Thin = Cloud? Not necessarily

Cloud & Consumerization