Business and IT
For every small business it is important not to confuse the IT ‘tail’ with the Business ‘dog’. You are in business to make money and you do that by doing whatever it is you do. Your computers must help and assist you do the things that make you money. Don’t let the tail wag the dog.
There are two main models:
· Conventional networked PC’s
· Thin client or dumb terminals
These models give us a very broad view of the main choices available. There are many other options which are not canvassed in this booklet.
In a conventional network of PC’s, there are two or more personal computers connected together via a network that allows sharing of files, internet connectivity, and printers. The network may or may not include a server. It may run Microsoft Software or it may run Open source software, typically Linux or toher operating systems.
Each PC contains data and software and does the information processing. In a server model the data is likely to be stored on the server.
Apple computing is not included in this publication.
Thin Clients are probably going to be the most popular business computing model in the future |
Thin Client
Thin Client systems use computers which are ‘thin’ or ‘dumb’. They act as a screen and keyboard only. All the processing and data storage and software resides on a server which may be located somewhere else and accessed via the internet.
There are pros and cons for both systems but we do not have room to explore them in this publication. Most businesses will be running a conventional PC based network