In an effort to further promote the adoption of hosted desktops and the benefits of thin client computing, Leostream Corp. announced that its Connection Broker for hosted desktops has gained support from two of the leading suppliers of thin computing, Neoware and Wyse Technology.

The Leostream Connection Broker provides controlled access to desktops that are running in virtual and physical machine environments, including VMWare's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and IBM's Virtualized Client Solution (VCS). Connection Broker also provides policy-based connectivity between fat, thin, and web-based clients to physical machines, virtual machines, or Citrix sessions using the most appropriate remote desktop protocol.

Leostream Connection Broker provides a protocol-agnostic solution to the problem of connecting users to the computing resources they need to do their jobs. Supplied as a Virtual Appliance, it comes as a self-contained system that can be setup and configured in a few hours.

Benefits include:

• Zero user retraining - hosted desktops look and behave like physical desktops.
  
• Single sign-on from either Thin or Fat (Windows 2000, XP, and Vista) machines avoids the need to re-enter usernames and passwords.
  
• Progress reporting keeps user informed of progress and errors associated with assigning a desktop, such as "no Hosted Desktop available," or "Hosted Desktop starting."
  
• Integration with existing remote desktop viewer avoids the need for Java, ensures a highly responsive user experience.
  
• Support for a wide range of remote desktop protocols enables the complexity of the backend system to be hidden from the user - they just login and are automatically connected to the appropriate resource using the necessary connectivity.
  
• Hosted desktops centralize sensitive information, reduce risk of data loss.
  
• Thin clients can be locked down so it is not possible to copy data onto removable storage. The thin clients themselves are not worth stealing and contain no user data - ensuring compliance with data security regulations such as HIPAA.
  
• Desktops can be remotely managed and assigned to users from a pool and be returned to the pool after use.

Posted by David Marshall on November 14, 2006 04:19 PM