Ponder This

Tuesday October 17, 2006

Reuters selects Sun for Desktop Virtualization

Here is the first press release from the Reuters deployment of the Sun Desktop Virtualization Solution.

As one of the early customers to deploy our desktop virtualization solution, this was in my opinion the worst case deployment we could have taken on. Going after a developer environment is not an easy task as most developer environments typically have advanced needs and requirements. However, with the suite of applications that needed to be supported and the security goals the customer had, desktop virtualization was the best route to take. We were able to collect a ton of data on desktop virtualization from a real world deployment that allows us to help customers make the best decisions in even the most challenging environments.

Reuters desktop users will benefit from a seemless virtual desktop solution. Our solution is not what I call a “Desktop on a Desktop” similar to what session brokers such as Leostream, Propero and Citrix's RDB solution, due out later this year are. Most solutions being positioned as session brokers are webbased and require a thin client device or PC that has a browser and in some cases Java support. This means the end user experiance will require interaction wih the local device OS as well as the virtual desktop. In some cases, this could lead to dual licensing costs, added cost for the thin client management software and the continued day to day management of the end user device's OS. Because these solutions are typically webbased the use must gain access to the device and then launch a connection to the virtual desktop Tis is a non-seemless two step process. This can be a painful learning curve for most desktop users.

With the Sun Desktop Virtualization Solution users have a seemless experience when connecting to their virtual desktop. Because the Sun Ray virtual display client does not use a local OS. The virtual desktop is “Displayed” to the end user in a single seamless step. Statically assigned users are connected to a static virtual desktop and dynamic users are assigned a virtual desktop from a pool. It is a seamless experience to the end user. When connecting remotely using a secure remote access component we do leverage a webbased solution to simplify the deployment and any client device software management burden from the IT staff.

Our solution offers a seamless access tier that requires little to no management allowing the desktop management team to focus on the Virtual Desktop Tier. We can offer and end to end solution that delivers a Virtual Display client, session mobility from device to device, secure remote access, desktop application publishing, pooled VM's static VM's, VM recycling, load balancing as well as other features.