For the past year or so I’ve been thinking that cloud computing would usher in a whole new era of thin clients since people can now access information and applications any time, anywhere, on any device and therefore won’t need so much heavy hardware. Being somebody who has reasonable access to a lot of really smart people from leading companies who work on these sorts of things every day, I started mentioning it around and asking if, as I believed, thin would soon be in since everything is now available online as-a-service. Funny thing is that nearly all deny thin is in and actaully get quite upset when I bring it up in our conversations. Despite their spirited efforts to correct my perceptions, however, I still can’t escape the idea of a world where computing is more like television. Afterall, how many people carry around a television in their bag?
I can understand how packaged software manufacturers might see it. Certainly computer-makers too. Nevertheless, as the popularity of netbooks, tablets, and smartphones continues to rise I have to wonder how anyone can deny the trend toward increasingly thinner and thinner devices. For me personally, the hardware just isn’t all that important and it’s really all about the access to information and applications. I’m basically getting that now with cloud computing and move pretty freely every day between several devices. Of course, the demand for high perfomance workstations and data center hardware will continue to grow but for the life of me I still don’t understand how so many IT professionals can deny the rise of thin computing.
What am I missing?