What is Server Based Computing?
A line is stuck in my head, "periodically you must doubt those truths you hold to be self evident." Do not recall where it came from. When I try to resurrect the source, I smell coffee in the morning and beer at night. Must have been while in college that it got stuffed into the back corner of my brain with other information that has never seen daylight.
Perhaps it was a philosophy class, logic or symbolic logic? The name Mill jumps out at me. Then John or Stewart. I search Goggle. There is a John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873. He was in th
e philosophy business. Maybe it was in a philosophy class.
I like the line, but what does that have to do with Server Based Computing? For much of the past decade the SBC market has been dominated by Citrix (licensing 3.x), then with Citrix hosted atop Microsoft TS 4.0 and its successors or Microsoft TS alone. Several companies have taken a run at this market with varying degrees of success or lack of success. Why has the Microsoft/Citrix combination dominated this market segment?
Brain Madden on his web site (http://brianmadden.com/) asked the question, "Is there a viable alternative to Citrix MetaFrame"? I think there are but it begs the question "What is the future role of Server Based Computing"? Citrix knew the answer 15 years ago when it was a startup company in southeast Florida.
Is the definition of Server Based Computing still the same today as it was more than a decade ago? Perhaps not. SBC is just one arrow in an IT departments quiver of solutions. Just as technology changed arrows from shaved tree limbs and stone to exotic materials, so has the tools that IT uses to support their organizations. What are the new requirements for SBC today and tomorrow, and how well do current SBC vendors solutions meet those needs?
Don Novello, a writer and comedian that created the character "Father Guido Sarducci" also wrote several books based on the character Lazlo Toth. Lazlo wrote letters to famous people. And some of them wrote back to Lazlo. Of course this was an era before email and you could spot junk mail because it did not arrive in the mail box with a first class stamp attached to the envelope.
Unlike Don Novello whose purpose was to make humor from the responses to his letters, this blog will attempt to define SBC in its current and future role as an IT solution for organizations. We will solicit insight from users, IT administrators, financial officers, and SBC vendors and post those insights. We just might use snail mail with a first class stamp!
The first order is to define who are the vendors. I have listed many of them in the column to the left. But know that this is by no means a complete list. To help, please post the names of vendors that have not been listed that you think should be included. The only requirement is that they have an URL that we can link to their site.
Until the next post,
Steve Charles
PS. Hello John
Perhaps it was a philosophy class, logic or symbolic logic? The name Mill jumps out at me. Then John or Stewart. I search Goggle. There is a John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873. He was in th
e philosophy business. Maybe it was in a philosophy class.I like the line, but what does that have to do with Server Based Computing? For much of the past decade the SBC market has been dominated by Citrix (licensing 3.x), then with Citrix hosted atop Microsoft TS 4.0 and its successors or Microsoft TS alone. Several companies have taken a run at this market with varying degrees of success or lack of success. Why has the Microsoft/Citrix combination dominated this market segment?
Brain Madden on his web site (http://brianmadden.com/) asked the question, "Is there a viable alternative to Citrix MetaFrame"? I think there are but it begs the question "What is the future role of Server Based Computing"? Citrix knew the answer 15 years ago when it was a startup company in southeast Florida.
Is the definition of Server Based Computing still the same today as it was more than a decade ago? Perhaps not. SBC is just one arrow in an IT departments quiver of solutions. Just as technology changed arrows from shaved tree limbs and stone to exotic materials, so has the tools that IT uses to support their organizations. What are the new requirements for SBC today and tomorrow, and how well do current SBC vendors solutions meet those needs?
Don Novello, a writer and comedian that created the character "Father Guido Sarducci" also wrote several books based on the character Lazlo Toth. Lazlo wrote letters to famous people. And some of them wrote back to Lazlo. Of course this was an era before email and you could spot junk mail because it did not arrive in the mail box with a first class stamp attached to the envelope.
Unlike Don Novello whose purpose was to make humor from the responses to his letters, this blog will attempt to define SBC in its current and future role as an IT solution for organizations. We will solicit insight from users, IT administrators, financial officers, and SBC vendors and post those insights. We just might use snail mail with a first class stamp!
The first order is to define who are the vendors. I have listed many of them in the column to the left. But know that this is by no means a complete list. To help, please post the names of vendors that have not been listed that you think should be included. The only requirement is that they have an URL that we can link to their site.
Until the next post,
Steve Charles
PS. Hello John
2 comments:
Interesting blog.
To the SBC and vendor list, you might want to add Symbio Technologies. They specialize in diskless thin clients that PXE boot and are booted up, configured, and managed by their Symbiont Boot Appliance.
These guys are also lead developers in LTSP.
The site is at http://www.symbio-technologies.com
Thank you.
Symbio Technologies has been added to the list.
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