You really need to consider end-2-end cost
Sure the projected savings on the client side look attractive, but you need to also consider the huge cost of:
1) converting apps that currently run the business to be not just web based but Chrome OS browser compatible (since Java, ActiveX and other plugins are not available).
2) the cost of extra servers (HW, licensing and management cost) to run all these apps centrally instead on the laptop CPU's.
Also, even if you can convert 75% of the users to Chrome OS, that means you still need to maintain the current Windows Client solution for the other 25% of users. For a large enterprise this still means thousands of users, spread around the globe. A large portion of the management cost for an optimized Windows based client in a large enterprise is fixed and does not depend on how many users you deploy the solution to (assuming you have already optimized to a single solution for the vast majority of the users). So deploying that Windows solution to 25% of the users versus 100% does NOT mean the cost goes down to 25%. Add to that the cost of managing the new solution - maybe less but definitely not zero - and you most certainly or not going to end up anywhere near a 70% decrease in cost...
Another cost to consider for these 'always connected' devices is connectivity cost. With users being more and more mobile and using 3G connections to stay connected, running every single application in the 'cloud' you are very likely to reach those monthly download limits. Multiply that by thousands of users and the extra cost will quickly exceed any cost savings gained by moving to Chrome OS in the first place. Offline apps will help but the more stuff you store/run locally, the more you again increase the need for local security/backup/restrictions, basically again increasing the management cost.
To make things clear, I'm NOT saying there is no future for Chrome OS or similar approaches, just that one really needs to consider the end-2-end cost. I'm looking forward to the day where we can finally free ourselves from being held hostage by Microsoft and the Windows eco-system.
IT Pro with 20+ years experience in creating Desktop Management solutions for large enterprises.
