New Sun Ray 3 Thin Client

New Sun Ray 3 Thin Client

Abstract:
Sun had traditionally been a workstation company, who had moved to servers, and then migrated to thinner clients. Thin Clients have been based occasionally upgraded. Since the acquisition of Sun by Oracle, the latest thin client had been released.

The Sun Ray 3:
Several blogs (MapleDesk, ThinkThin) have talked about the new thin client. There is also a posting to the Oracle/Sun Web Site comparing the new thin client against the other clients.



The front has audio input/output connectors, 2 USB jacks, while the rear panel has dual monitor support, 2 more USB jacks, Gigabit Etherrnet, and even a 9 pin serial port!


You can see what the new Sun Ray 3 Plus Thin Client look like, when it is unboxed.

Where's The Media?

What is extremely odd to me is the silence from the media. For example, The Register covers thin clients from vendors like Microsoft, but has been completely silent on the latest release.

Network Management Implications

The dual-monitor 2560x1600 support is an excellent opportunity to display high resolutions maps and consoles to large monitors in a NOC.

The 9 pin serial could provide a means to configure routers, switches, and other embedded systems from the thin client.

Why would it need gigabit ethernet? Honestly, the thin client would never need that much throughput. It could reduce latency and make the GUI feel more snappy in an environment where there is tremendous pressure for performance.

The SMARTS Card provides an extremely robust hard security mechanism so only NOC personnel can use the terminals while standard username/password combinations can still be used to access the applications.

Hot-Desking remains a great feature - the removal of a card at a particular NOC station means the desktop can move from one location to another location without the time cost of restarting the applications.