NEC, Sify to push thin-client computing in India

NEC will work with Indian IT services group Sify to push thin-client computing in India, the two companies said Thursday.

Under the terms of the deal NEC will build virtual PC centers in India from which Sify can provide thin-client terminals to its 16,000 enterprise and 2 million consumer customers as an outsourced service.

The terminals measure 16cm by 10cm by 3cm and are small enough to be mounted on a wall or behind a monitor. They support all main Internet applications including voice-over-IP telephony. The applications themselves run on an NEC server that maintains communications with the terminals. NEC reckons the system works about 34 percent cheaper than using conventional PCs.

“It provides the most cost-effective solution for countries like India and developing countries,” said Raju Vegesna, chairman and CEO of Sify, in an interview with IDG News Service. The thin client has a better chance of success in India over some other countries because a variety of operating systems are in use in the country and users are less tied to a single OS, he said.

Through the alliance NEC said it hopes to see 100,000 thin-client terminals and 6,000 server units installed in India in the next three years.

A number of the terminals will end up in Sify’s 3,500 Internet cafes that are dotted across the nation and will also be used in the company’s call centers and office processing centers, Sify said.

NEC launched its push into the thin-client computing space last November and said it hopes to achieve sales of ¥150 billion ($1.3 billion) in its first three years of operation. Thursday’s deal will go towards reaching that goal and will also help NEC achieve another target: the doubling of its business in India to $200 million by 2009.

Of the additional $100 million of sales it is seeking in India, it expects about 80 percent will come as a result of the alliance with Sify, said Kazuhiko Kobayashi, executive vice president of NEC, at a Tokyo news conference.

NEC is also promoting the thin-client system in other markets. Local subsidiaries in Canada, France, the U.K. and the U.S. began promoting it this quarter and it will be available in China, South East Asia, Oceania and the rest of Europe during the second quarter.