Thin clients for CAD

When we talk (see End of the line for the fat PC?, for example) about increased use of more energy-efficient 'thin client' computing (a parallel movement to the adoption of Software-as-a-Service, SaaS), particularly in relation to the construction sector, we often get sniffy remarks from CAD users that their graphics performance and local storage requirements will preclude them from such advances.

Well this may not be the case forever, as an article (Thin Clients Target CAD Users) by Beth Stackpole in Design News makes clear. She says "new technology advances are delivering the right dose of high-end horsepower from the data center to the desktop, prompting engineers to reevaluate the latest entrants in this category." Companies like Teradici are apparently employing image compression capabilities to deliver a high-end graphics experience on a very thin desktop device, and the solution is being licensed by IBM, ClearCube and others.