Wyse announces key partnerships and offerings, including software that addresses the poor desktop experience for the end user.Thin-client vendor Wyse Technology Inc. is continuing its migration away from appliances and toward software.
Wyse President and CEO John Kish is in New York Wednesday to unveil a host of software offerings and partnerships designed to drive forward server-based computing, an increasingly competitive space that has yet to gain wide acceptance.
Server-based computing—in particular, thin clients and PC blades—place the key components of a PC, including the processor, memory and hard drive, on a centrally housed server, which can be more easily managed and is more secure than desktops. This leaves the user with a keyboard, mouse and display on the desktop.
The San Jose, Calif., company is unveiling the Wyse Streaming Manager, software designed to address a key complaint about thin clients—the poor desktop experience for the end user. Employees were not always able to access all the applications they wanted or needed, Kish said. Servers running Windows Server 2003 can use the software to deliver operating systems and applications to networked users, giving users access to all the specific applications they desire, he said. Streaming Manager will become available later this quarter.
Wyse debuts a compact yet powerful Linux-based thin client. Click here to read more.
The streaming capability, which is an alternative to flash memory, also opens up other avenues for the company, Kish said. In the second quarter of 2006, Wyse will introduce the concept of a thin client on a chip, which can be embedded in other devices, such as displays and keyboards, further expanding the role of server-based computing. The Wyse Device Manager management software—currently called Rapport—will be included on the chip, he said.
In addition, Wyse is announcing partnerships with such vendors as Sun Microsystems Inc., Computer Associates International Inc. and IBM. Sun, of Santa Clara, Calif., and Wyse will jointly market and develop Wyses offerings and Suns Sun Ray thin clients and Secure Global Desktop Software. Wyse also will bundle the Sun security software on its S- and V-Class thin clients. The hardware and software offering also will include Suns growing line of Galaxy servers, which run on Advanced Micro Devices Inc.s Opteron chips.
In addition, Wyse is partnering with CA, of Islandia, N.Y., to deploy CAs eTrust anti-virus software on its thin-client appliances running Microsoft Corp.s Windows XP Embedded operating system. CA also will integrated Wyses Device Manager into its Unicenter software management products, Kish said.
The integration will enable Wyse thin clients to be discovered and managed in the Unicenter console, and users will be able to launch applications onto the appliances through the CA software. They also will be able to launch Device Manager from the Unicenter console.
In addition, Wyse will collaborate with IBM in its Virtualized Hosted Client Infrastructure, in which the Armonk, N.Y., computer maker is working with VMware Inc. and Citrix Systems Inc. in creating a server-based computing environment using its BladeCenter blade servers.
Wyse also is joining AMD in an initiative to bring affordable Internet accessibility to half of the worlds population by 2015. Wyse will supply terminals to the project, Kish said. Given the sporadic power supply in some areas, and the distances between communities, thin clients—with their centrally located servers—make sense, he said.
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