Web Applications: Return of the thin client!
Jul 15, 2009 9:15 am by Mitchell SchultzMany modern day websites (in addition to being a source of information for customers) are now providing applications to clients and employees in order to improve customer service and allow instant access to information such as current inventory levels, custom pricing and sales quotes. These applications built into the website for ease of access and “hands free” administration are the reappearance of a software architecture that appeared with the original mainframes.
In the early days, computers filled an entire room and everyone shared the CPU with their colleagues using terminals (devices consisting of a keyboard and monitor) connected to a single computer. Since these terminals did not process data rather simply passed the input from the keyboard and the result to the monitor they would become known as “thin clients”.
Next came the creation of the personal computer and the age of the “thick client”. Computers were cheap and plentiful, workers would not only have their own computer at the office but would typically have an equal or faster computer at home. All types of applications from word processors to accounting software ran locally without any need for communication with another machine.
Now, with the advent of the Internet and modern day web browsers we are seeing a shift back toward the thin client where application processing is being completed at data centers and personal computers are simply providing an interface via the web browser.
Are web applications the future for all software? No, while there are many advantages to web applications including better security, protection against hardware failure and lower IT administration in some cases it doesn't make sense for software to be written using a thin client architecture. These types of applications tend to be multimedia oriented (like modern 3D games) which require specialized hardware on the local computer in order to improve performance. Like most things in life one needs to evaluate the available options and choose the best tool for the job.
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