What are the advantages and disadvantages of thin client

Thin client is one form of centralized computer network. Imagine you are in a room full of computers, computer labs for example. All computers in the room are connected to the network. At the front of the room there is a complete PC that acts as a server. While the rest is a client computer.

The client computer is just a monitor, keyboard, and mouse only. While the CPU, hard drive, RAM, and other computer components are on the server. So when you run the software on the client computer, it's the same as you run software that resides on the server.

From the server side, the client computers are like "users" in the operating system. The difference is, all users are active at a time when all client computers are used.

Why Use Thin Client?

Surely there are several reasons why using thin clients. Here is an explanation.

The first advantage of using thin clients is that we only need to manage the applications that are located only on the server. As in the explanation above, in the computer network with the type of thin client there is only one computer installed software, namely the server. Client can automatically use the applications that have been installed on the server.

[thin client understanding] The second advantage of applying thin clients is that the office, school or company that implement them can minimize the cost of computer infrastructure. As much as any computer used in the Thin client, the client only needs a monitor, mouse, keyboard, and tools to connect between servers with clients only. That is, there is no cost CPU, RAM, hard disk from these clients.

Thin Client's weakness

In addition to the advantages, of course there is a weakness of this thin client application. Here are some weaknesses of thin clients:

Thin client requires a reliable network to run properly. This is because all applications are accessed through the network, if the network is not good, it will impact on the client computer.

Thin client requires high server specification. This is because a server will be accessed by many clients. Network administrators should consider the amount of RAM, hard disk, and other components for a powerful server computer to perform its job as a server