Lean and Mean When it comes to saving your business's time and money, thin is in.

Despite the name, thin clients aren't overly diet-consciouscustomers-rather, they're stripped-down computer systemsthat run applications remotely from a server. They forego all the"fatty" aspects of regular desktop PCs and are able tooperate without hard drives, screaming-fast processors, removablemedia drives or souped-up RAM. Although thin clients still useregular monitors, the devices themselves look more like verticalpancakes than computer towers.

Thin clients are attractive for businesses that don't wantto-or can't-employ a platoon of IT professionals tobaby a slew of regular desktops. Because most software is deployedon the company server, the IT load job is a lot lighter. Upgradethe programs on the server, and you upgrade all the thin clients aswell. Upgrade the server hardware, and the thin clients reap thebenefits. It all adds up to tech-support savings.