by Joe Gleinser
28. June 2010 17:32
After more than a decade of experience with Citrix and Terminal Server, I've learned a thing or two about thin client computing. And, for the most part, I despise it. For every success story there are two or three failures. These failures are usually not catastrophic but frustrating, annoying, and troublesome. Not the computing experience I aim to provide to my users.
What if we could combine all the functionality of a desktop with the "thin-ness" of a thin client? As we continue to migrate large numbers of users to the Cloud, we are doing just that. The use of Cloud based solutions turns existing desktops and notebooks into thin clients. I no longer care about the applications, data or OS installed on these boxes. My users can switch devices quickly and easily. Little time is wasted troubleshooting individual devices.
Cloud services such as Egnyte, SoftLayer, and Google Apps have finally delivered on a promise that IT made a long time ago.
by Joe Gleinser
25. March 2010 20:04
Microsoft's announcement of RemoteFX finally brings the user experience in Terminal Server (now Remote Desktop Services) closer in line with VMware View and XenDesktop. I'm withholding judgment until we're able to test this claim, but the marketing promises look appealing. Its inclusion with Server 2008 R2 SP1 means this can upgrade can be immediately rolled out to existing Terminal Server users without any expense.
In this rapidly changing product, its difficult to keep up with the name changes. Remote Desktop Services is now the official product name. Session Virtualization is now the technology offered by Terminal Server.
Read more about RemoteFX here: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/03/17/explaining-microsoft-remotefx.aspx
by Joe Gleinser
10. February 2010 17:53
I am pleased to announce that GCS has achieved Professional Partner status with VMware. Though a single step in our long term VMware strategy, this status enables GCS to branch into other VMware product lines beyond vSphere 4. GCS is currently piloting VMware View 4 with several clients and looks forward to deploying desktop virtualization around this platform. GCS deploys server virtualization solutions built on both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V.
by Joe Gleinser
15. December 2009 23:38
Just buy an OS license per user, right? Not so fast, there. Behold the glory that is the Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop or VECD. This special license, with an even more special name, is required for every virtualized desktop. And the best part is that it's only sold Per Device. Connect from your PC at work - that's 1 license. Once in a while from a laptop? That's a second license. Microsoft does allow access from home without requiring a second license. And you can receive up to 4 virtual instances per license, which is nice.
Per Device licensing has always seemed a bit strict for those organizations that nearly match in users and devices. Usually Microsoft offers both Per Device and Per User options. This is even more so for those users that login from multiple devices, which is a rapidly growing segment of the workforce. I connect from four different devices regularly.