 Okay, we're back. This is Dave Vellante, and I'm with Stu Miniman. We're at Wikibon.org. This is SiliconANGLE.tv's coverage of theCUBE, where we bring you the smartest people that we can find. We're here live in Las Vegas at HP Discover. We like to extract the signal from the noise, package it up, serve it up to you, our audience. You'll be a great audience. We appreciate the tweets and the questions that come in. I'm at Dave Vellante. He's at Stu, so please feel free to ping us with any questions or comments that you might have. We'd love to hear from you. We're here with Tom Flynn. He's a chief technologist within HP's Thin Client Group. Tom, welcome to theCUBE. Oh, thanks for having me. Yeah, so Thin Client. That is a term that is near and dear to my heart, because I'm an old guy and I've seen the industry evolve. But we've seen it come full circle, this whole notion of the power of applications actually going to the network. We had Scott McNeely on theCUBE a couple of weeks ago. And he's a cloud. The network is the computer, right? So it's all coming back around, isn't it? Absolutely. It's a real good business for us, so we're doing well. Yeah, so tell us about the Thin Client business. So I'll tell you, with our Thin Client, we kind of look at it in a couple different spectrums. We have our flexible line of Thin Clients, and those are incredible devices. They're all dual-core in our line with the 510 and the 610. We can support anywhere from two to six screens off a Thin Client, if you can believe that. And we do all the primary protocols, work closely with Microsoft and do RFX certification. We work with VMware, with PCO by P. We work with Citrix, with HDX. And then we also just introduced a whole new line a couple of weeks ago at Synergy, which is our smart client. It's all-in-one, smart zero client. Draws just 13 watts of power, but it's an all-in-one, so it's got both the display and the compute. And it delivers exceptional performance. And it's a true, flexible zero client. It's kind of an oxymoron there, but that's what it is, in which it'll do hardware-accelerated any of the three protocols, because we actually use a TI-DSP to do that protocol acceleration. So in that very small energy package, you now have outstanding performance, desktop-equivalent performance on that device when it's connected to either an RFX-based system or a VMware view or Citrix HDX. So some people talk about virtual desktop infrastructure, you know, VDI. We've been very vocal about, see that term is just the wrong term. Does anybody buy desktops anymore? Oh, absolutely. People are buying 20 million commercial desktops a year from this. The desktops, the demise is way overhyped. So yeah, of course, why don't people buy desktops because they can get a lot more for the money and if they don't have to be mobile. So the emerging markets, very strong. Domestic markets, very strong. But I mean, that's really not the debate, right? I mean, with the sort of tongue-in-cheek, it's really about any device, whether it's a desktop or a laptop or a mobile system, right? Absolutely, and it's great for our thin-client business. This will bring your own device to work. It's wonderful for our business because, you know, two years ago, it was a debate between the cost of a desktop and the cost of a thin-client plus a VDI infrastructure. That's not what our customers are deciding anymore. Now it's the decision of, do I port to a media tablet, whether it's iOS or Android? Do I port my application to a Mac and run it on Windows? Or do I stand up a VDI infrastructure and allow that to be delivered to that endpoint device? And when you do that, a thin-client's a natural fit to have in the office. Oh yeah, I have to say, I'm impressed. I mean, we all remember the PC days when IT was sort of shut out of that wave for a while anyway. But the traditional IT organization has really embraced the mobile trend. Why do you think that's the case and why is it different this time around? Well, I think they've embraced the mobile because you have no choice, right? I mean, it's an end-user-driven decision, so IT's a bad end-user-driven, right? And eventually, IT adopted it. It just took a long time. It just took a while. I mean, I've been doing this for a while. So maybe it's because we saw that movie before and we knew the script and we said, all right, we can't make the same mistakes? Well, I think because, unlike the initial implementations of PCs, this came in from the top with executives. It also came in the bottom from end-users, right? So when you're squeezed from the top and the bottom, what choice do you have? There's an even bigger trend. Plus the network's there. The network's there. Plus I think it's the investment we and all of our partners have made in the last five years. Because five years ago, VDI was not a true desktop replacement. It was niche to guys who really just needed the security aspects. But the investment everybody's made in the protocol performance, USB redirection, multimedia redirection, you get a true PC experience now on these endpoints that you didn't get with those solutions five years ago. Well, even less than five years ago. I'd say two years ago. Two years ago. 18 months ago. I'm telling you, the improvements are incredible. So you can give me a desktop experience or a laptop experience that's basically transparent. Is that what you use? You can promise me. That's what I'm promising. Graphics. The only caveat is what your network is, right? If you're on a really bad network, you're not going to get a very great experience. But if you're on a reasonable network with minimal latency and minimal error rates, you're going to get a great experience. Well, that's a trade-off that anybody uses like Gmail, you know, understands, right? Absolutely. It's always there, but you got to be able to get to it. Okay, so where do we go here in the next several years? I mean, is, you know, the vast majority, is this a sea change in terms of the infrastructure? Or is it still, I mean, it still feels a little niche-y time. I mean, you know, you do have people in high-security environments and financial services and, you know, claims, you know, help desks. They still really seem to be leading the charge. Are we seeing a much broader adoption now? We're certainly seeing a lot of customers moving in that direction, right? Will it be 100% of that market? I highly doubt it, right? I mean, our industry, things rarely ever go away, right? We're additive by nature, but you're seeing a wide adoption in a lot of large companies because it makes a lot of sense, right? It's simpler to implement, simpler to ensure security patches. Your data's protected, so it gets all of that. And then if you use things like our T410 on the endpoint where you can have a 13-watt endpoint, the energy savings alone could justify the infrastructure setup. So there's going to be, the early adopters are going to go there, those with a burning need are going to go there, but it's moving to mainstream. I think it's crossing the chasm and it's going to a mainstream solution. So for a lot of people, this is a complicated situation, right? I mean, people think, oh, server virtualization, I can just do desktop virtualization or mobile virtualization, but it's a whole different ball game. So what does HP bring to the table to help people cut through that complexity? So HP brings the whole answer to the table. So we're from the desktop to the data center. We have an entire set of service offerings, whether that's consulting and integration, it's TS help implementation services, or a managed service offering in this space. And then from our product point of views, we have the HP Converged Infrastructure to set up your backend. We have a reference architecture. Part of the challenge people had with VDI or session virtualization when it first came out is how do you size it? I was just going to ask you that. Right, they thought it was a CPU, it's a disk, is it that? I.O. patterns are completely different. Well, we expect an inordinate amount of money, benchmarking and sizing in our industry standard server division has a complete reference architecture. You've got good data on that now. We've got great data on it. We understand it. We've actually made storage solutions for VDI that are targeted to be a VDI storage solution because of its unique I.O. profile, which is different than server virtualization. So question on that. We've talked to a lot of the practitioners and we really need that good planning ahead of time. Absolutely. Usually there's been some assessment tools, there's likes of liquid ware labs out there and others, EEG innovations. Is that something that HP has and then also internally? Absolutely, HP has a service offering like that. It will go and help you decide. Is there a branded solution for that? So I don't know what to do. I'm actually in the PPS group, so I know we have that offering, and I don't know what its name is. Okay, and when I think of thin clients, the name that most people know really well is Wise. And Wise was recently taken off the market by Dell, who's done pretty good. We've talked to a lot of Dell practitioners that have deployed their VDI. And the crazy man talking man has been like you. Yeah, absolutely, very well known. So, what can you share with us kind of proof points on the thin clients? What size environments, how many do you have? We have one customer, 70,000 seats. Okay. Right, as their implementation. They are our largest customer for our thin clients. But 10, 20,000 is not an unusual number for us for customer implementation. And the uptake in at least the bidding process right now is pretty phenomenal. So we're a very well established, we're either number one or number two in every market we compete in with thin clients. We have a very wide portfolio of offerings. So we do everything from a little hardware zero client for a Microsoft multi-point implementation all the way through to our T610 top of the line that can drive six screens for the most demanding financial trader, right? So we have an entire range of offerings and everything in between. Our flexible lines all dual core so that you can run your voice over IP solution with this as well as your virtual desktop. So we have a very strong position. Okay, so another challenge for VDI has been it tends to be rather niche from a vertical standpoint. So government and healthcare is what we hear a lot about. Where do you see adoption of thin clients? We do see it in government. We do see it in healthcare. We see it in insurance. We see it in financial services. We see it in manufacturing. We see it in retail. We see it in banking. We see it at educational service especially in the developing world, right? Where this is a much easier system to stand up and support. So you referenced the developing world a couple of times. Do you want a lot in China? We do a lot in China, a lot in India. A lot of work there. That region's pretty close to a third of our business in thin clients. How about Africa as a region? I mean, we're kind of going outside of thin clients but it seems to be tracking to some of these emerging regions. And so our multi-point solution actually has been picked up in Africa because it was so low power that it could be solar powered, right? And that's kind of a requirement. There's it on the infrastructure. And when we talk about this new one that we announced two weeks ago, our Citrix HDX SOC compliant, the T410. When you think about that, I mean, it's 13 watts of power for the display and the compute. You're credible for solar power now. So you can do those implementations in small places throughout Africa where you don't have a true power. I mean, they have cell phones with animal electricity. Tom, I was wondering, Citrix has tended to have the lead in this space. From a software standpoint, they have a lot of still advantages if you're talking about voice and video. Where do you see the market dynamics there? Citrix, VMware, Microsoft? So we partner with everybody, right? And probably Citrix is the leader, right? In market share, for sure. Especially when they combined in Zen Desktop, both the Zen app and the Zen Desktop numbers together. But VMware is a very powerful player and a great partner and so is Microsoft. And so we're very happy with all of them. We're good partners with everyone. Open. Well, it's about customer choice, right? We want our devices to perform outstanding in any environment that our customer chose, right? And that's been our goal. I mean, you know, it's kind of been a narrative on theCUBE today, really. I sort of took it up earlier with one of our guests. Everybody's talking about we're open, we're open. We're trying to define the new open. And you guys, I think, I think you're affirming that commitment. I mean, it doesn't sound like your sales guys are averse to bringing in pretty much any technology. Which is somewhat unique on the product side. I mean, any services company will do that. I'm sure your services organization has always had that independent. We'll do what our customers want, you know? So that they can make a difference. They can make a change in what they do, transform their environment. What's required to do it is what will help them do it. It's hard, though, for customers, right? Because everybody's marketing open, right? I mean, everybody. I mean, Oracle markets open. We were talking, we were joking about this before. This is the Oracle open cloud or whatever it is. It's like, oh, okay. Oh, I'm sure. Oh, so the customer is saying, okay, I guess I got to make a choice. What is it that makes HP more open than the competition? Well, so I think what HP does, we have a tradition, a long tradition of partnering, right? I mean, we're Microsoft's largest partner. One VMware's largest partner. We're certainly Citrix's largest partner. About 65% of their implementations are on our devices, right? So we naturally gravitate to it because once we listen to what our customers want, we work with the ecosystem to deliver that, right? So that's the way we do it. And customers want choice. They want the flexibility to do what's best in their environment. And sometimes it's a mixed match of different things to get what the customer wants, achieve their business objective. And I think that's what drives HP. We want to do what's right for our customer and with our customer. Excellent. All right, Tom Flynn, Chief Technologist for the Thin Client Group. Thanks very much for coming on theCUBE. Well, thanks for having me. Great to meet you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, keep it right there. We'll be back with more guests live from HP Discover. This is SiliconANGLE, TV's theCUBE. Keep it right there. theCUBE is this conceptual box, if you will. And we bring people inside of theCUBE and then we share ideas. theCUBE is a comfortable place. It's a place where people feel happy and are happy to share their knowledge with the world. And we're happy to be ambassadors of that knowledge transfer.