Win2000 surpasses NT4 in thin client scalability

Microsoft's Windows 2000 software marks a move forward for the thin client environment across the board, according to early adopter John Saville, Head of IT services for the University of the West of England.

Silicon.com talked to Saville, who is trialling Windows 2000 on the University of the West of England network. The university's Citrix-based thin client system spans 4,000 workstations and 30,000 domain entries across eight separate campuses.

Saville said Windows 2000 attracted him for three reasons: "One is scalability but the second and third elements - that are key elements to us - are the remote system administration and the installer technologies that Windows 2000 offers."

While trialling the operating system, Saville is also in the process of deploying a full Windows NT4-based system across the network. He said he experienced scalability problems with NT4 after getting as far as 500 clients, taking the system's reliability "below acceptable service levels".

While Microsoft insists NT4 is scalable enough for the thin client environment it does admit the launch of Windows 2000 marks a major step forward in terms of price and performance from anything issued before.

Nicholas McGrath, Windows product marketing manager, claimed: "We have made an incredible move forward with Windows 2000 in terms of the scalability levels we are seeing, especially in the high end."

You can watch the interview with John Saville on Silicon.com's Client/Server Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a35885 ).