“Thin Clients” are computer-like devices that replace computers for both students and faculty. The devices have no local storage, and no computer processing power. They work by communicating with a special server, where processing occurs.  The only thing that gets passed back and forth is input from the thin client (in the form of mouse clicks and keystrokes) and screen images from the remote server.

Figure 1:  How Thin Clients Work

This technology is important and special because the thin client device is only a fraction of the cost of a computer.  Although there are costs involved in purchasing and maintaining a server on which to run the applications, there is an overall decrease of about 2/3.  So, a computer lab that might cost you $30,000 to build will only cost $10,000 if you use thin client computing.