Oracle's president stresses thin-client savings

Channel partners can save their customers between 30 to 40 per cent of their IT infrastructure costs by moving to a network-computing model that features thin clients accessing Internet-based servers, proclaimed Oracle president Ray Lane last week.

"Today, 30 to 50 per cent of MIS budgets in any company goes to infrastructure such as help desktops and desktop maintenance . . . before you create a single application," Lane said.

Oracle has promoted thin-client network computers as alternatives to Microsoft-based PCs, but the concept has not taken off in the marketplace. Thus, Oracle is now positioning PCs as network computers.

"Seventy per cent of business applications today can be moved to the network," Lane said. "They do not need to be sitting on the desktop."