Thin is In: Anywhere, Anytime Access to Critical Data.

• Author: CIESLAK, DAVID
• Position: Web appliances and application service providers - Brief Article

IN THE WORLD of computing, thin is definitely in. In fact, the future of computing appears to be moving toward smaller, thinner computing devices called Web appliances. With thin computing and Web appliances we finally may realize the promise of "pervasive computing"--anywhere, anytime access to critical programs and data.

WHAT'S HAPPENING

If your critical business applications and data aren't on the Web, they probably will be. Virtually every major software vendor already has developed, or is working on a strategy to make their application software and your data available over the Internet via a Web browser, either on a monthly subscription or per-use basis through application service providers.

An application service provider sets up and maintains hardware server "farms" (large facilities of servers) to host applications, which eliminate the need for companies to devote in-house hardware and staff resources to run applications. For more information on ASPs, see: http://www.calcpa.org/californiacpa/articles/2000/tech-asp.html.

If the thought of your critical data residing on an ASP server gives you chills, all is not lost. This very same type of functionality--external Internet access to your data via a Web browser--also is available through products like Citrix Metaframe, which allow you to store programs and information on your company's internal network, not on external servers. Whether you choose to access your applications and data from an external ASP or internal Citrix MetaFrame, eventually, a thin client or Web appliance is all you'll need to access whatever you need, whenever you need it.

WEB APPLIANCES

Web appliances come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes, but can be broken into two broad categories: communication and information-centric. Communication-centric devices include Web-enabled cellular phones and pagers, which allow users to read and respond to e-mail in real time, download selected Web content and connect to ASPs. However, designed for voice communications, they are not terribly efficient for heavy-duty data entry.

Information-centric devices enter and retrieve text and graphical information via keyboards or handwriting recognition for volume data entry. They include everything from a traditional desktop PC to newer, "thinner" devices such as thin clients, e-machines and hand-held computing devices.

Why are these devices called thin? First, very little computing or processing actually takes place on these...