Mobile VDI Client For Windows PCs Launched By NComputing

NComputing, a virtual desktop software supplier that has flown under the radar but is building up an impressive global customer base, has released a mobile client that turns Windows PCs, laptops, netbooks and tablets into high-performance virtual clients.

vSpace Client for Windows uses NComputing’s home-grown vSpace Server to scale to up to 100 user sessions on a single host PC or server.

Multiple benefits

With this kind of scalability, IT departments could be freed to support initiatives such as mobility, bring your own device (BYOD), remote access and Windows 7 migration with fewer resources and by employing legacy computers if necessary, NComputing’s new vice president of Global Marketing, Jay Mellman, said.

vSpace Client comes as a simple free download, and customers are usually up and running in 15 minutes or less, Melman told eWEEK. Customers can either extend existing NComputing vSpace deployments using a combination of thin clients and software clients, or deploy a software-only product that uses their existing Windows-based PCs.

Downloads for iOS and Android devices are in the future plans for vSpace Client, Mellman said. Customers download and install the client free of charge on any number of devices, paying only for concurrent user access to vSpace Server.

Key features of NComputing’s vSpace include:

• Mobile and remote access that allows users to access their desktops and key applications from any Windows desktop, laptop, or netbook anywhere, anytime.
• BYOD capability that transforms user-owned devices into virtual desktop clients.
• Eases Windows 7 migrations by delivering a Windows 7 environment to existing PCs while allowing IT to control individual upgrade.
• Extends the life of PCs by enabling customers to repurpose aging PCs.
• Reduces pressure on IT by bringing the benefits of centrally managed virtual desktops to PCs distributed across sites and organisations.
• Enables centrally managed deployment with predetermined access rights, so that data does not reside on the client.

NComputing has about 50,000 customers, more than three million virtual desktops deployed globally, and about 20 million actual users, Mellman told eWEEK. The company claims market-leading VDI share numbers in Latin America, Eastern Europe, India, and in the education vertical, yet the company is not very well known, even in its own country.

vSpace Client for Windows is available now from the online NComputing store and from channel partners worldwide. Pricing for the vSpace Server starts at $499 (£315) for a five-user licence.