2008-08-27 11:34:41 - We examine the thinking behind the conventional server approach against the new and fast growing terminal server farms.

Conventional Thinking v Terminal Server - An Historical View
The Food Connection
The computing industry can be likened to the history of nutritional advice; in the early days we were told that milk, cheese and eggs were very good for you, then we were told that we should only eat them occasionally, now they're 'balanced'.
The same has been true of the argument

for distributed versus centralized computing. In the old old days we only had dumb terminals (read: 'Thin Clients') connected to powerful (by the standards of the day) mainframes. Then, with the advent of a microprocessor from a young upstart company by the name of Intel, it became logical to do all one's computing on the local machine, thereby obviating the need for a file server in the old-fashioned sense.
More Power, More Functions
As computers grew more and more powerful, they were capable of doing much more and so it became logical, again, to network them in order to harness their co-operative working capabilities. This was true of the software just as much as the hardware; as Microsoft Windows took hold, truly collaborative environments became possible. Of course, when they are a good idea and are possible, they soon become essential! This was the era of the 'Thick Client' - if there are technical support people reading this then please, no laughing!
The natural solution to this was to have a File Server as the central hub, with everyone running their applications (word processors, spreadsheets etc.) on the local machine and connecting to the server to get the data itself. This was seen as a Good Thing, since the data can be backed up centrally and nothing is lost.
The Effect Of The Turbo-Charged WAN
Then came broadband! With the additional speed came richer internet content and, of course, connectivity. Now, people could work from home, connecting to the server via a VPN (Virtual Private Network). This enabled all sorts of possibilities but, sadly, came with some restrictions. For example, have you ever tried to run a Sage Report over a VPN? In a race to Christmas, Santa will always beat your Trial Balance Report. The reason? Data has to come over the VPN, be processed, and then sent back - often!
Enter Terminal Server, and voila! The return of the Thin Client! Here, the PC is merely a launch point to connect to a Terminal Server (also known as an Application Server) over a broadband connection. You have the same connection speed and the same applications, but now re-run your Sage Report and watch Santa cry into Rudolph's nosebag! The reason? Sage is being run on the server, and the data never leaves the server. Instead, the user is sent the screens that Sage displays, and the processing is done locally, never stretching the bandwidth of the connection.
 
Terminal Server - The Hidden Pluses!
It might seem obvious that remote working, from anywhere in the world, would be more practicable with a Thin Client approach, but there are some other benefits, too. Consider, if you will, the recent faux pas by several Government agencies with stolen laptops containing important information. In a Terminal Server situation, it is not necessary to store information locally and so the thief would get the laptop only, not your credit history and washing bills since you were born.
Then we have the technical benefits. With a large number of users, spread all over the country (or all over the globe) the System Administrator has only one set of servers to maintain on a daily basis. Granted, there might be a mirror site for Disaster Recovery purposes, but other than that, and local internet connections at the client sites, he has only one set of hardware to worry about.
Company policy changes, user application availability, user rights management etc. are all centrally administerable, and what could be a massive problem suddenly becomes an elegant solution.
'I have read all this now, so should I get one?'
You would think that the author, having advocated so strongly for Terminal Server (or at least Thin Client computing in general - there's always Citrix if you're a braveheart) would be unconditionally advising you to go forth and connect. The short answer is- think about it.
Ask yourself - are all your users in the same building? Do you have less than, say, 3 people that need to connect remotely? If you answered 'Yes' to both of these then Terminal Server might not be the way; you can get occasional remote access for a limited number of users via different methods. Also, Terminal Server does not sit well with other Microsoft Server applications, so if you need to these, you will need more servers, at least if you wanted to follow Best Practice Procedures.
It's like anything in the IT world; horses for courses. I love Terminal Server and you could too, as long as your budget and your requirements are a fit.

Neil Robinson B.Sc. (Hons) is the Technical Director at Nemark Professional IT Services Ltd, a firm specialising in the deployment of thin-client networks.

neil.robinson@nemark.co.uk www.nemark.co.uk