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By Christine Tatum
Businesses end PC devotion; turn thinner
When it comes to business computing, thin is in:
Eager to shed weight, both in terms of people and tech maintenance cost, more businesses are ditching PCs in favor of "thin-client" computing.
Here's how to keep the two straight: Thin-client machines are basically terminals tethered to the old office mainframe. They don't have hard drives or local operating systems, and they can't even function without connection to a server. That basically means thin-client users don't call as many shots as their PC-using counterparts. They can't root around the machine's innards to play solitaire, download MP3 files or paste up Dilbert wallpaper unless the boss lets them. However, they still can surf the Web and company Intranet to access programs stored on a central server.
The beauty of thin-client computing from a business perspective boils down to cost. Buying a computer is one thing, but paying a technical support staff to keep it running is something else. Research firm Gartner Inc. estimates that businesses using thin-client computing would save up to 32 percent on maintenance each year depending on how aggressively they maintain desktops.
"Pressures to save on the budget are greater, and people are getting sick of all the upgrades," said Gartner senior analyst Peter Lowber. "More operations are looking at thin clients for bigger deployments than ever."
Among them is Chicago's YMCA of the USA, which recently contracted the Skokie-based ASP One to develop a thin-computing network for 963 member associations.
"With so many different locations to manage, it's much easier for them to operate in a thin environment." said ASP-One CEO Henri Ganancia. "For people running the same applications consistently and without much variation, it's the ideal device."
With thin-client computing, small armies of tech support staff would no longer be needed to change settings or install programs on every PC because one change to a central server would affect every terminal. But let something go wrong with the network, and every terminal would be affected.
The same thing happens to PC users when a network crashes, but with thin-client programs stored on a server, it wouldn't be possible even to work in a program offline.
Thin-client computing is also less robust and far more difficult to access from the road, which is why businesses would be smart to use a mix of PCs and thin-client machines, said John Kalanik, president of Chicago's InStep Software.
"It's certainly not right for everyone in the office," he said. "But taking the time to identify who it is right for will save a lot of money."
More online: Find out how to protect data no matter what kind of network is used to store it. Read a 12-step plan for tightening business security at chicagotribune.com/securityblanket.
Money talks: ITRACS Corp., a developer of hardware and software that monitors computer networks in real time to identify potential trouble spots, is moving its headquarters from Tempe, Ariz., to Chicago.
Three Chicago investment firms are welcoming the company with $19.5 million in funding. Mercantile Capital Partners, Citadel Limited Partnership and JI Ventures, the venture capital arm of Jordan Industries Inc.
ITRACS Chief Executive Officer Tom Reedy said the money would be used to develop several new products scheduled for launch early next year. Among them is an IT infrastructure management tool call RealTime that ITRACS plans to develop with Lisle-based Molex Inc.
Freedom for ISP: The original owners of Lisle-based Internet service provider XNet Information Systems Inc. have cut the ties that bound the company to bankrupt Winstar Communications.
Winstar acquired XNet in 1999 in a cash-and-stock deal valued at more than $6 million, co-founder and president Arthur Zards said. Last month, he and co-founder and CEO Brian Clark bought the company back from Winstar for roughly $500,000.
"It was a six-month process that was like living through hell," said Zards."The most frustrating part was having to honor those bankruptcy laws that prevented us from telling our customers the real reason why they hadn't been paid for months."
Zard said XNet has about 4,000 clients-roughly 500 of them businesses, including Abbott Laboratories and Motorola.
The company, at 3080 Ogden Ave., is celebrating its independance with an open house from 2:30 to 9:00p.m., on Dec. 12. The public is invited. Call 630-983-6064 to RSVP.
More online: Zards discusses XNet's future at chicagotribune.com/executiveinterview.
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