Wyse Highlights Virtual Desktop Capabilities

Wyse Technology announced enhancements to its suite of desktop virtualization software, including Wyse Virtual Desktop Accelerator and Wyse TCX Suite, on Oct. 11.

In a separate announcement, Wyse also said that its thin- and zero-client platforms can utilize 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 1M bps, and low latency, as low as 30m per second, the company said in a statement.

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 optimize the bandwidth allocated to users to minimize 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 virtualization environment. It smoothes out performance while delivering virtual desktops to remote branch or field-based users.

Wyse TCX Suite’s new USB Virtualizer 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, organizations can’t opt to use portable storage because most virtualization protocols can’t decrypt the files stored on the encrypted drives, according to the company. With the TCX Suite, users can insert IT department-authorized flash drives into Wyse TCX-compatible endpoints to utilize the data.

“Without Wyse TCX USB Virtualizer’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 virtualization 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’s appropriate, organizations can maintain a desktop virtualization infrastructure without relying on larger, more expensive and more energy-intensive servers, which allows the organization to lower IT costs, Wyse said.

Wyse will also be demonstrating how its client-side products for cloud computing work with VMware View 4.5 at VMworld 2010 Europe Oct. 12-14 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, and the multiprotocol Wyse R10LE connecting to View 4.5 and supporting dual screens. The Wyse PocketCloud for Android and iOS will also be featured at the show’s mobile bar, said Wyse.

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