Wyse Enhances Its Virtual Desktop Software

Wyse Technology announced enhancements to its suite of desktop virtualisation software, including Wyse Virtual Desktop Accelerator (VDA) and Wyse TCX Suite. In a separate announcement, Wyse also said that its thin and zero client platforms can use the new VMware View 4.5 in a virtual desktop environment.

Wyse VDA accelerates content delivery including Web pages, Flash, media-rich applications and text. The new version announced this week accelerates connections with low bandwidth, as low as a megabyte per second, and low latency, as low as 30 milliseconds, the company said in a statement.

Smooth Performance

A big concern in a virtual desktop environment is displaying rich-media content without overtaxing the network or having severe lag issues for the user. Network accelerators optimise the bandwidth allocated to users to minimise issues like latency and packet loss to improve user experience. Wyse VDA is a software alternative to hardware-based network accelerators for PCs and other devices in a desktop virtualisation environment. It smoothes out performance while delivering virtual desktops to remote branch or field-based users.

Wyse TCX Suite’s new USB Virtualiser protects corporate data by redirecting encrypted USB drives, the company said. With this feature, companies can use encrypted USB flash drives to store and move highly sensitive data within their virtual environment, just as they would in a typical PC desktop environment, said Wyse in an e-mail to eWEEK.

In many VDI environments, organisations can’t opt to use portable storage because most virtualisation protocols can’t decrypt the files stored on the encrypted drives, according to the company. With the TCX Suite, users can insert IT department-authorised flash drives into Wyse TCX-compatible endpoints to utilise the data.

“Without Wyse TCX USB Virtualiser’s unique support for encrypted USB drives, customers are either exposed to possible enterprise data loss because of the use of non-encrypted drives or have to limit user productivity by disallowing the use of USB drives,” said Param Desai, director of product management at Wyse Technology.

Also, Flash Acceleration has been extended to work on Mozilla’s Firefox browsers so users can view Flash in both Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Firefox, Desai said.

The Wyse TCX Suite provides enhanced multimedia, audio, Flash, USB support and multidisplay capabilities on desktop virtualisation platforms. The suite features Collaborative Processing Architecture that uses the endpoint’s processing power to deliver a virtual desktop.

By shifting processing workloads to the thin client whenever it is appropriate, organisations can maintain a desktop virtualisation infrastructure without relying on larger, more expensive, and more energy-intensive servers, which allows the organisation to lower IT costs, Wyse said.

This week, Wyse has also been demonstrating how its client-side products for cloud computing work with VMware View 4.5 at VMworld 2010 Europe in Copenhagen, Denmark, the company said. The products on display include the Wyse P20 zero client connecting to View 4.5 and delivering Windows 7, plus the multiprotocol Wyse R10LE connecting to View 4.5 and supporting dual screens. The Wyse PocketCloud for Android and Apple iOS will also be featured at the show’s mobile bar, said Wyse.

Wyse is expanding its capabilities in desktop virtualisation. The current portfolio includes products with advanced management features for thin and zero clients, as well as support for desktops, laptops and mobile devices in a cloud computing environment.