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METERING Thin clients and metering A ‘thin client’, sometimes called a lean client, is a low-cost endpoint computing device that relies heavily on a server for its computational role. The term thin client is also used to describe software applications that use the client – server model in which the server performs all the processing. Thin clients and other lean devices rely on a network connection to a central server for full computing and don't do much processing on the hardware itself 1 . Typically, the user will access the data on the server via a web browser or similar application with any analytical computation requested being performed by the server. There are many examples of this arrangement, some of the most ubiquitous being web-based e-mail, modern point of sale devices and numerous Google applications. The idea of a thin client is also central to the ‘Internet of Things’ where hardware devices used to connect the user to the item do nothing other than convey a set of data to a server which is accessed by the user (to check on the status of a device or to inform the consumer of their consumption profile, for example). Thin client architecture harks back to the early days of centralised mainframes and minicomputers. In the 1970s and 80s, computer users often interacted with a terminal that only received input and returned output, and all data processing was performed in a centralised server. There were many reasons why this was preferred which are still relevant today, cost being one of them. Thin client hardware is often far simpler because it doesn’t require big processors or hard disk drives. Another reason has to do with backups and disaster recovery. To create back-ups for all users in a thin client Meters have become generic; the job is to meter and register usage and load restrict. 20 environment one needs only to back-up the server, making disaster recovery a far simpler process than it would be if each user had their own processor or database. How does this relate to metering today and what is the potential effect on the meter manufacturer? The implications of thin clients for the metering industry are significant. Given that the very nature of a true thin client negates the need for any intensive hardware requirements in the meter, it follows that the meter itself may be stripped of all decision- making functionality with all critical and other decisions being made by a central management server. When a consumer wants to access facts and figures about their account (consumption for a particular day or load profile over a period of time, for example) they won’t obtain it from the meter, but from the management server. Furthermore, it would be the server telling the meter to switch on, switch off, load limit, etc. without the meter having any input in this process. Thin client infrastructure for metering For meter manufacturers this is not necessarily a good thing as it has the potential to move the focus from the hardware to the software. By stripping down the real meter functionality to its core (for example, using the meter simply and only to relay real-time consumption information back to a central server) a manufacturer will be left with very little, if anything, to distinguish its meter from its competitor’s. With the emphasis then falling onto the related software offered, any number of specialised software vendors METERING INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 6 | 2016