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Thick and Thin Client LIMSThere are different forms of laboratory Information Systems or LIMS. The most traditional form of laboratory software has been the thick client LIMS, wherein the software is installed directly in the lab server. There are different forms of laboratory Information Systems or LIMS.
The most traditional form of laboratory software has been the thick
client LIMS, wherein the software is installed directly in the lab
server. Another form is the thin client laboratory software. However,
both these types of LIMS software have been losing ground to web-based
LIMS software. To understand why labs prefer web-based software as
compared to thick or thin based laboratory software, let’s first understand these two forms of LIMS: Thick Client LIMS Software Thick client laboratory software is a very independent form of LIMS.
When the LIMS is a thick client one, the functionality of the lab
depends heavily on its own computers and systems. The LIMS software is
installed directly in the lab server, and the computers are modified to
be able to access LIMS and modify it. This allowed the entire laboratory
software to be heavily modified to suit the exact requirements of the
lab and also established a high level of security for the lab since LIMS
functioned within in-house computers only, and the software was only
installed in the lab server. However, although thick client LIMS software did allow for a huge
amount of flexibility, it required a lot of knowledge, and the learning
curve was very high to develop individualized versions of thick client
LIMS software. Moreover, the setting up and maintenance of thick client
LIMS software was very demanding because it would require dedicated
servers, as well as individualized computers that could access the
server and system at high speeds. Moreover, thick client LIMS software
also did not have a lot of functionality through web browsers. This
could be solved by adding an additional feature to make the system
web-enabled. However, this also provided only limited functionality, and
the problem still persisted with thick client laboratory software. This
is where thin client LIMS came into the picture. Thin Client LIMS Software Thin client LIMS software reduces a lot of costs to the lab for
maintenance and setup of the system since the laboratory software
actually works from a remote host without utilizing the resources of the
lab’s computers. However, functionality was still reduced, and the LIMS
software would require continuous and speedy real time access to the
server at all times. Thus, it can be seen that both thick and thin client LIMS software
have their advantages, but they have their own disadvantages as well.
The latest form of laboratory software, which is web based LIMS
software, does away with the cons of both these systems and combines all
the advantages to form a perfect laboratory system. Web based LIMS
software usually works on a .NET Framework. This allows the system to
run as thin client laboratory software from the outside through a web
browser, while also running as thick client software behind the scenes.
The learning curve is not high for a web based LIMS software Article Tags: Thin Client Lims, Client Laboratory Software, Client Lims Software, Thin Client, Client Lims, Laboratory Software, Client Laboratory, Lims Software, Lims Software, Thick Client, Based Lims Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com
ABOUT THE AUTHORA blogger in the field of laboratory informatics.
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