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• Lower hardware costs Thin clients tend to be less expensive than fat clients
because they do not contain disk drives, application memory, and high-power
processors. They also have longer lives before needing upgrading or becoming
obsolete.
• Efficiency In a fat client, the CPU is idle most of the time. With a thin client,
memory can be shared. If multiple users are using the same application, it only
needs to be loaded into the server’s RAM once. In a fat-client scenario, each
workstation must have its own copy of the application in memory.
• Lower energy consumption Thin clients use a lot less energy than fat clients. This
reduces the amount of energy consumed, which equates to less heat generation,
thus reducing the price of air conditioning.
• Easy hardware failure management If a thin client fails, it is easier to replace than
a fat client. If a thin client fails, the unit is simply swapped out. There is no need to
try and recover files and transfer them from the old, broken machine to a
replacement.
• Hostile environments Because thin clients don’t have moving parts, they can be
used in dusty environments and other harsh locales, such as manufacturing floors.
Because they lack moving parts, there’s no worry over fans clogging and
overheating the computer.
• Ease of upgrade If your system needs more computing power, it’s easier to add
another blade server to increase system resources to the level you need rather than
having to upgrade individual clients. This results in less downtime, and you don’t
have to worry about disposal of replaced equipment.
• Less noise Because there are no fans in the thin clients, no noise is generated.
• Less disposed equipment Thin clients can remain in service longer than fat clients, so
they aren’t disposed of as often. Also, because there are no hard drives or DVD-ROM
drives, there are fewer components to discard when they reach the end of life.

Servers
There are different ways you can use servers in your green workplace. Through
consolidation and virtualization, you can remove unnecessary machines from your
workplace, but you can also use servers for new functions. In this section, we’ll talk about
the different types and functions of servers.

Blade Servers
As noted earlier in this book, the main appeal of blade servers is that they increase your
organization’s datacenter capabilities, without adding to its size. In this section, we’ll talk
about what you should look for if you are specifically looking for blades.
Benefits
Before we talk about specifics for selecting models, let’s examine why blades are so useful to
your organization. Some benefits include:

• Less space needed Blades take up 35 to 45 percent less space than tower or
rack-mounted servers.