HP Releases Mobile Thin Client

By Greg McNevin

January 29, 2008: HP has just released a trio of new thin clients, including a new laptop that can store data and access everything else, from OS to applications, wirelessly from a central server.

Just as virtualisation is taking off in a big way, businesses are showing a renewed interest in thin clients, and HP certainly isn’t waiting around for analysts to wax lyrical about thin clients as the do virtualisation.

A direct result of its 2007 acquisition of Neoware, the HP Compaq 6720t Mobile Thin Client is being aimed at road warriors such as insurance claim processors, remote staff, warehouse and inventory managers and office administrators.

Based on Microsoft Windows XPe, the notebook features a 1GB solid state drive and has no fan or other moving parts. Connectivity is handled by Wi-Fi Certified WLAN and 3G broadband wireless via its PC memory card slot.

The main benefit of mobile thin clients is that of security. With damaging data loss incidents surfacing in the news every few weeks, securing mobile data has never been more important. HP claims that mobile thin clients are an effective way to do this, as all application and organisational data is store on central servers, not the machines themselves. The company claims this reduces the risk of data loss, viruses and product theft.

The company is also offering two desktop thin clients as part of its new line, namely the Compaq t5730 and t5735. While the 6720t mobile thin client and the t5730 desktop both run Microsoft Windows XPe, the t5735 runs Debian Linux instead.

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