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Of Netcore and the Rs 5,000 Gold Rush

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Last year, 2.2 million PCs were sold, slightly higher than the year before.

Prices for these start at Rs 25,000. On an average, if you need a fully-loaded,

multimedia-enabled PC, you might have to shell out not less than Rs 45,000. And

that with hardware and software compromises. How about a fully functional

desktop in Rs 5,000! No gimmicks, no frills, perfect display, complete

productivity suites and a high-speed processor.

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Sounds like a dream? Yes, it has been a dream so far, but one man wants to

change the rules of the game. Based on the conventional Think client

desktop-Thick client server OS architecture, this Desktop can be affordable for

a number of people who are still skeptical about buying a PC due to high price

attached and higher maintenance cost.

At

this price, desktops will be bought even by those who are wary about

making the purchase: due to cost of procurement, maintenance

Rajesh Jain, MD, Netcore Solutions, is spearheading this task. "It is

all about understanding the customer and creating a market that can use it

easily. It’s like a pizza, you can buy one for Rs 200 or Rs 20." "I

am trying to put together a unit that is affordable, practical in usage, works

efficiently and a product you can rely on." The architecture is simple. It

is about creating a software platform, which brings down the cost of technology

by a factor of 10, thus making it affordable for consumers and enterprises in

the world’s emerging markets. "It is going to become the computing

platform for the next 5 mn consumers and the thousands of SMEs who have not been

able to adopt technology because of high pricing," claims Jain.

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This kind of desktop is targeted at the world’s emerging markets, because

they are where technology has not yet penetrated deeply, and yet, for whom,

technology offers an opportunity to better integrate into the world’s value

chain and improve the standard of living for their people. The key components

are a Thick Server on the server side; a Thin Client and Digital Dashboard for

the enterprise client side and enterprise applications.

Emergic

Freedom: The Benefits
n

Provides

a full suite of desktop applications.
n

Reduces

desktop software costs.
n

Eliminates

virus risk, since Linux is the underlying environment.
n

Offers

a Windows-like graphical desktop, for ease of use.
n

Reads

and writes MS-Office file formats (DOC, XLS, and PPT files).
n

Runs

DOS applications, through a DOS emulator.
n

Reduces

desktop hardware costs, via re-use of existing PCs or purchase of new,

low-cost computers.
n

Enhances

performance of older hardware, due to server-based computing and storage.
n

Eliminates

desktop hardware upgrades, since all computing is on the server.
n

Centralizes

Administration, via the server through a web-based front-end.
n

Simplifies

software upgrades, since only the server needs to be updated.
n

Allows

sharing of computers, with privacy of data for each user.

As per Jain this architecture provides four key benefits, unmatched in any

existing solution in today’s marketplace. It brings down the cost of hardware

on the desktop and also brings down the cost of software on the desktop. It

creates a solution that is easy to manage and scale through server-based

computing and integrates with the Windows world, by supporting MS Office file

formats

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Tentatively christened Emergic Freedom, this Thin Client-Thick Server is a

Linux-based platform, which can bring down computing costs dramatically by

leveraging older computers and combining it with a Linux-based desktop and set

of open source applications. Some of the applications include Evolution for

email and calendering, Mozilla for browsing, OpenOffice for the productivity

applications–word processing, spreadsheet and presentation, GAIM for instant

messaging, providing a single-window login to Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ICQ, and Jabber.

This architecture might sound too much like the IBM Mainframe that started

the history of computing. The major difference is the re-use of older hardware.

Older PCs can now be leveraged as Thin Clients, without sacrificing performance

or the desktop look or the applications. These PCs, which incidentally have

become an environmental hazard in the developed markets, can now be shipped to

the emerging markets where they can be integrated in this platform and used

effectively.

This happens because of the use of Linux in a server-computing mode. All the

applications are run off the server, with only the display happening on the

client side. In that sense, the desktop becomes a terminal. The difference this

time around is that the Linux-based Thin Client has all the key applications

that the majority need to use (email, browser, instant messaging, word

processing, spreadsheet, presentation) and there is no performance penalty even

though the applications run off the server.

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Server-based computing using Linux (and built on the X protocol) is now

possible because LAN speeds have gone up to 100 Mbps enabling the transfer of a

lot more data over the same network. The result is that a Thick Server (which is

actually a new desktop with 1 GB RAM and two hard disks in RAID configured

software) can easily support 30-40 users. Such a server would cost about Rs

70,000, implying a per client cost of not more than Rs 5,000.

Taken together, the Thin Client and Thick Server combination not only brings

down the cost of both hardware and software by 90%, but also provides the IT

manager with complete control of the client desktop from the server.

The Thin Client-Thick Server, Digital Dashboard and the Enterprise

Applications strategies create the foundation for a new IT infrastructure based

on Linux and Open Source for SMEs. This solution’s cost will be a fraction of

what the big players’ charge, but in functionality it will not be far behind.

It is a strategy used by the Indian pharma companies in the last two decades as

they made low-cost drugs available to the local populace. A similar strategy has

been used by Huawei in China to take on the telecom majors like Cisco, Lucent

and Nortel–it provides half the functionality but at a fifth of the price.

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"There’s a lot that we have to do. The vision is quite audacious and

large in its scope. But I sincerely believe that many things in technology are

now coming together to dramatically change computing in the next decade. The

Internet was one such 10X, which brought the world’s computers closer. And

yet, a large part of the world is still relatively untouched by technology,

largely because it is driven by US companies and dollar-based pricing. This

"other world" is the one that now needs to be impacted by technology.

I think of Emergic as the next Tsunami which will bring the world’s people and

enterprises closer," said Jain.

Jain wants to target schools, hospitals, cybercafes, call centers, hotels,

factories, hostels, business centers, training institutes and residential

complexes primarily with this solution.

Talking about the minuses, he said that this is not at all standalone device,

a threshold number has to be kept in mind to make an economically viable Thin

Client-Thick Server solution. Another issue will be the acceptability of this

low priced computer in the first place. Cynics may point out that this is not a

practical solution to the conventional PC. With Moore’s law still in effect,

you’d think that something would soon be in offering which will be cheaper

than this and might just be a stand alone PC. Cheap computing solutions are what

everyone is looking at, but sustaining its availability and creating its own

market would be the major task to achieve. Figuring out why the cheap machines

have lacked sustainability is hard. It could be because they merely teach people

the value of computers, and users want more serious power!

Shweta

Khanna




DQ Week

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