VALA2000 Session 2 Banbury

Persistent URL: http://www.vala.org.au/vala2000-proceedings/vala2000-session-2-banbury

Fat or Thin? Is the Verdict In?

VALA 2000 CONCURRENT SESSION 2: Technology
Wednesday 16 February 2000, 10:45 – 11:15

John Banbury

Networks Librarian. Flinders University Library
http://www.flinders.edu.au/library

Ian Brown

Information Technology Librarian, Flinders University Library
http://www.flinders.edu.au/library


VALA Peer Reviewed Paper

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VALA2000 Session 2 Banbury Paper 58.82 KB

Abstract

Thin client or network computing is a hot topic. The hype claims lower total cost of ownership, faster applications deployment and reduced management pain, compared to traditional computing architectures. Early in 1998 the Flinders University Library installed network computers in the Central and branch libraries for student access to the Internet. This paper is a review of network computers in the light of our experience over the past two years. Do network computers offer all that is claimed in the hype? Are there hidden costs? What are the issues of configuration, server scaling, network performance and fault diagnosis? Do they have a future in the Library arena?