Case Studies in Thin Client Acceptance

Thin Client technology boasts an impressive range of financial, technical and administrative benefits. Combined with virtualisation technology, higher bandwidth availability and cheaper high performance processors, many believe that Thin Clients have come of age. But despite a growing body of literature documenting successful Thin Client deployments there remains an undercurrent of concern regarding user acceptance of this technology and a belief that greater efforts are required to understand how to integrate Thin Clients into existing, predominantly PC-based, deployments. It would be more accurate to state that the challenge facing the acceptance of Thin Clients is a combination of architectural design and integration strategy rather than a purely technical issue. Careful selection of services to be offered over Thin Clients is essential to their acceptance. Through an evolution of three case studies the user acceptance issues were reviewed and resolved resulting in a 92% acceptance rate of the final Thin Client deployment. No significant bias was evident in our comparison of user attitudes towards desktop services delivered over PCs and Thin Clients

Optimization methods for the performance enhancement of thin client computing over bandwidth-limited and slow links

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Design, Development, and Implementation of a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN): The Hartford Job Corps Academy Case Study

Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) offer flexibility, mobility, and scalability to educational institutions. Students are increasingly expecting anywhere, anytime access to online resources. Secondary school administrators, who serve a similar population as the National Job Corps Program (NJCP), realize that student success in the 21st century workplace depends upon the student\u27s ability to use new and emerging technologies, including wireless technology. Computer access anytime and anywhere is crucial to the success of students today. Wireless technology has been broadly deployed at educational institutions, such as the Hartford Job Corps Academy (HJCA), but little is known about how these networks are deployed and used, specifically at a Job Corps center. HJCA deployed a WLAN in 2005. Information about the core aspects of the design and implementation of anytime, anywhere initiatives, such as wireless solutions in education, is needed to complement the current research. The NJCP does not have a model for standardizing, organizing, and maintaining wireless networks. The goal of this investigation was to develop a model for planning, designing, and implementing a wireless solution for the Job Corps system. The case study findings from the investigation and the systems development life cycle (SDLC) provided the framework for structuring WLANs at other Job Corps centers. This framework also facilitated the investigation and a determination of the significance of the case study findings, and the analysis and development of the WLAN implementation model for the NJCP. The findings of the HJCA investigation from multiple sources are presented. Using the SDLC framework and the findings from the case study, the NJCP WLAN implementation model is presented. The NJCP WLAN implementation model may be used to facilitate the deployment of WLANs at government-operated, education and training facilities, such as the NJCP