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Lower
IT admin costs. Thin clients are managed almost entirely
at the server. The hardware has fewer points of failure and the
local environment is highly restricted (and often stateless),
providing protection from malware.
Easier
to secure. Thin clients can be designed so that no
application data ever resides on the client (it is entirely
rendered), centralizing malware protection.
Lower
hardware costs. Thin client hardware is generally cheaper
because it does not contain a disk, application memory, or a
powerful processor. They also generally have a longer period
before requiring an upgrade or becoming obsolete. The total
hardware requirements for a thin client system (including both
servers and clients) is usually much lower compared to a system
with fat clients. One reason for this is that the hardware is
better utilized. A CPU in a fat workstation is idle most of the
time. With thin clients, memory can be shared. If several users
are running the same application, it only needs to be loaded into
RAM once with a central server. With fat clients, each workstation
must have its own copy of the program in memory.
Lower
Energy Consumption. Dedicated thin client hardware has
much lower energy consumption than thick client PCs. This not only
reduces energy costs but may mean that in some cases
air-conditioning systems are not required or need not be upgraded which can
be a significant cost saving and contribute to achieving energy
saving targets.
Worthless to most thieves. Thin client
hardware, whether dedicated or simply older hardware that has been
repurposed via cascading, is useless
outside a client-server environment. Burglars interested in
computer equipment have a much harder time fencing
thin client hardware (and it is less valuable).
Hostile
Environments. Most devices have no moving parts so can be
used in dusty environments without the worry of PC fans clogging
up and overheating and burning out the PC.
Less
network bandwidth. Since terminal servers typically
reside on the same high-speed network backbone as file servers,
most network traffic is confined to the server room. In a fat
client environment if you open a 10MB document that's 10MB
transferred from the file server to your PC. When you save it
that's another 10MB from your PC to the server. When you print it
the same happens again - another 10MB over the network to your
file server and another 10MB back to the printer. This is highly
inefficient. In a thin client environment only mouse movements,
keystrokes and screen updates are transmitted from / to the end
user. Over efficient protocols such as ICA this can consume as
little as 5Kbps
bandwidth. | 
