Thin client computing--basically the use of scaled down front-end machines that connect workers to servers that hold all the data and apps--may be in for a revival of sorts. The concept has come into and out of vogue in cycles over the last decade or so. But now people are talking about the use of such clients as a way to produce a stronger compliance program. It makes sense. Would it not be safer to simply make it impossible for data to be stored on a workstation? Let a central server in a secure data center do all that. Makes it much easier to control. And compliance is all about control. We're seeing more vendors hit this angle in their marketing. HP is certainly on the bandwagon.  

For more:
- here's an article [1] on HP's latest initiative
- here's some background [2]