Thin client isn't right for everyone, says John Rule, principal customer solution architect at Fujitsu. The UK government's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) recently ditched plans to replace traditional desktop PCs with low-energy thin client machines, saying the extra cooling that would be needed in central server halls would use too much power. The decision might raise criticism from thin technology advocates, but it is good to see assumptions about green IT being scrutinised.

Environmental impact is a complex thing to measure. Whether Defra's choice is right or not depends on how energy efficient those "central server halls" are. The IT industry is working hard to develop more energy-efficient data centres with some facilities saving 10,000 tonnes of CO2 annually (equivalent to the output of 6,000 homes). But not everyone can afford to overhaul their existing systems for the promise of savings in the future.

As outlined in last year's CIO Council "Greening Government ICT" report, much of the carbon cost of a device is incurred during production, so it's important to "sweat assets". Some analysts suggest the energy cost of producing a PC is up to four times its energy consumption during its working life. If you have to buy new hardware, then energy-rating systems such as Energy Star, EPEAT and Greenpeace metrics are a useful guide to which devices are sustainably produced and energy efficient.

The bottom line is that despite the hype around thin clients and other so-called "green" technologies, there are no magic bullets - either for cost or environmental impact. In practice the keyword is still "appropriate". Thin might be fashionable, but that doesn't mean it's right for your entire business.

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Photo: Nato Welton