Technologies on both the desktop and in the data center are providing more efficient solutions. It is important to consider both sides of these solutions as part of planning any deployment. Examples of desktop-to-data center solutions are thin clients, remote desktops, virtualized desktops, and applications that sync and resync with central servers.

Whitepaper: End to End Architecture: Impacts of New Client Technologies on Datacenter Architecture

End to End Architecture: Impacts of New Client Technologies on Datacenter Architecture (308 KB)
To examine different client technologies and the changes they necessitate in the data center, four example client use-case scenarios are given in this paper. In each scenario the solution architecture, data center impact, and potential benefits are covered. Highlights from the paper have been included directly on this wiki page. For full details see the complete paper as linked above.

Discussion and questions about the paper can be written in the discussion threads section at the bottom of this page.

Whitepaper Highlights: Different User Types Equal Different Solutions

The profile or type of end user should dictate the best client solution. The following diagram from the whitepaper shows how some different solutions map to client type.


A key aspect of selecting a client solution is understanding how that choice will affect the utilization and architecture of the data center. The following table summarizes some of the benefits and effects on the data center that can occur when selecting certain technologies to support the different user types:

User Scenarios	Key Technologies	Potential Benefits	Data Center Effects
Mobile	Vista – Offline Files, Bitlocker Office 2007 – Outlook Cache mode Laptop – Multicore processors	Ability to work, offline data security, data backup, powerful local processing, better collaboration among mobile users	Upgrade to Exchange 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007, additional file server capacity
Call Center	Ardence – Software Streaming Dell OptiPlex Diskless Clients	Centralized boot image; simple reset, reconfigure, or upgrade of clients; centralized control of all data; no data on client	Ardence servers added, additional file server capacity
Remote	Citirx Presentation Server Microsoft Terminal Services Widespread Internet Access	Remote access from many types of client devices, remote access over internet to applications, centralized control of data	Remote access servers added, installation and configuration of applications for use in remote access, increased use of internal applications
Developers	Server and Desktop Virtualization Remote Desktop	Additional resources and flexibility for developers, centralized control of source code and development, process support for remote development centers	Smaller requirements for individual development and test systems, virtualization server farm, additional SAN capacity to support virtualization server farms