Government sets up thin client task force

Green Shift task force is set to pilot thin client use

The government has announced it is to set up a new task force to drive adoption of thin client technologies as it aims to reduce the energy used by its IT estate and tackle the problem of "cyber warming" whereby powering energy-hungry IT kit results in greenhouse gas emissions.

The new public-private "Green Shift" task force will be led by Manchester City Council and will oversee the piloting of thin client technologies - which it has rebranded as "green PCs" - that allows users to access the internet and hosted applications through a small network box that contains no moving parts and simply provides a network connection.

The government said the new service, which will be piloted in early 2008 and rolled out in late 2009, would use less than ten percent of the energy consumed by traditional office PCs. Thin client technologies also have a limited environmental footprint during their manufacturing process compared to PCs with some reports estimating they use 75 percent fewer resources.

Speaking to the BBC, local government minister Phil Woolas said that with " cyber warming" becoming an increasingly important issue it was essential that the government looked to improve the environmental sustainability of its IT estate.

"The new taskforce is the first of its kind in the world and is a sign of how serious the UK is about tackling this issue," he said. "Innovative proposals like the green PC service are essential if we are to tackle climate change."

Thin clients have enjoyed a surge in interest over the last year, according to experts, as firms look to limit their environmental footprint and cut soaring electricity bills.

Speaking recently to IT Week, Andrew Gee sales manager at thin client specialist Neoware said that companies were also finding the energy efficient technology could be used to help them fit more staff into increasingly power-constrained offices.

"Businesses are finding they can't get more people onto the floor and can't populate the office more densely because they simply can't get the power into the building to run the PC's," he said. "The problem is particularly acute in the finance sector where people can have two or three machines on their desks and it is beginning to put a constraint on growth and making it impossible for firms to maximise returns from their office space."