IBM talking about swapping out desktops for thin clients. There are already 4,000 of them deployed internally and Patricia Bolton, CTO of IBM's End User Services Business Unit, part of IBM Global Services, knows where there's another 50,000 desktops ripe to be moved next year.

Seems IBM sat up and took notice when Gartner said a few months ago that thin clients had grown 38% in 2005, a gravy train it didn't want to miss. So IBM is turning a "new" architecture that enables centralized computing at the server level into a standardized service.

IBM is particularly fond of services that can be standardized and replicated - that's sprinkled with the bewitching pixie dust of virtualization and selling it. It promises secure access to applications and data anytime anywhere with a potential 40%-50% cut in TCO because of the reduction in labor-intensive administration.

A centrally managed environment obviously simplifies technical support and can reduce downtime and cost by placing the processing requirements on a server.

IBM will come and either stick a thin client on your desks or jimmy your existing PC into a thin client that works off a BladeCenter.

Bolton estimates the cost - without the thin client - at $500 a desktop. All the thin client basically needs is a browser and a Java runtime.

IBM is also proposing to use Microsoft Terminal Server or Citrix and/or WebSphere and VMware.