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Raja Simhan T.E.

LASON India, a US-based BPO firm with offshore presence in India, expects to pilot the first assembly line of thin clients by year-end.If it is successful, it will step up usage, says Ranjit Pisharoty, Senior Vice-President.

In an e-mail interview, Pisharoty, who is also Convener, IT & BPO panel, CII-Tamil Nadu, shares his take with eWorld. Excerpts:

Why thin clients?

Using thin clients is not so much about cost as information security, data privacy, and protection against virus attacks/intrusions. Lower cost, though, is a plus. But then PC prices have been crashing.In the past, thin clients didn't take off because cost differentials were shrinking. Added to this was the public perception that if a Ferrari is available for Rs 40,000, why settle for a Maruti at Rs 20,000?

However, now companies want users, data processors or programmers to do just what is expected. There are no hard discs to save one's files, no print options, no downloading of heavy stuff, no open and vulnerable entry ports. There is, in fact, no data or information on the PC. This ensures that the required applications can be run by the user and user folders exist on the server for individual storage, just as the person may have earlier kept on his or her own drive or the desktop.

For requirements such as Web browsing, printouts, or CD usage, administered privileges are granted in a secure way.

How secure is a thin client?

Research has shown that over 90 per cent of information security threats are internal, including individual carelessness, mistakes and mischief — for example, storing important client information or processed data on desktops and then forwarding this or printing it out. If we cut opportunity at the root, where is the question of vulnerability? Implementing thin clients restricts operational flexibility. It calls for cultural changes. But once in place, it can be made water-tight.

How cost-effective is a thin client?

We have now heard of PCs being available for below Rs 10,000. However, I am not sure this comes with the operating system and packages such as Office where the software vendor has its own licensing fee. We have today fully-loaded PCs retailing at about Rs 18,000.

But I believe a network-ready system is the way to go — which means no modem required and a moderately thin client for about Rs 4,500.

Such a system, connected to centralised farms, would usher in utility computing for something like Rs 500 a month for a small enterprise (inclusive of bandwidth and access to a mini ERP).

I believe this will be the future of computing in India. Utility computing will resemble our monthly electricity or water bill (pay by volume of usage) or the cable television bill (pay by the bouquet one chooses).

How do you see this market from the perspective of BPO/ITES companies?

I believe that if the pricing model happens, which is possible, the big market for moderately thin clients will come from the millions of small enterprises that are today struggling with technology gurus advising them on servers, modems, routers, switches, firewalls and anti-virus packages, not to mention licence packages.

I believe PC penetration in homes will go up 10 times, making it as ubiquitous as a cable TV connection.

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