VDIworks Announces Open, Free Infrastructure for DaaS and Cloud-hosted VDI
May 8, 2012
VDIworks, a leading provider of management and enablement software for virtualization and cloud computing, announced today that it is making available an open, free infrastructure for Desktops as a Service (DaaS), Desktop Virtualization and Cloud-hosted VDI.
DaaSStack is built on free, open components and includes VDIworks’ just-released, DaaSManager, to provide a complete end-to-end solution that can power the next generation of end user computing.
“We’re essentially announcing two very important things today”, said Amir Husain, President and CEO of VDIworks. “First, we’re committing ourselves to building a powerful, free and open infrastructure for DaaS, based on proven components. We hope this will free customers from vendor lock-in, unbelievably high costs and the challenges associated with proprietary infrastructure. Second, as part of this initiative, we’re launching our new DaaSManager application, and making it available to users for free.”…
The industry has recently started to move towards Desktops as a Service in order to address numerous shortcomings that plague today’s PC infrastructure. Solutions that this new architecture promises include lowered capital costs, reduced management overhead, increased availability and security due to centralization and full support for mobility by making a user’s information experience accessible from any device, and any network.
While DaaS holds tremendous promise, today’s solutions are proprietary and expensive, and limit customers’ choice in hosting providers and deployment models. Much of the management cost savings that might be realized often have to be spent on expensive licenses for DaaS enablement software. The DaaSStack initiative seeks to bring an open, free alternative to the market so that enterprises, IT departments, hardware providers, MSPs, hosting providers and others can benefit from the potential of DaaS without paying hefty monthly fees for software rental, and without being tied to only certain “approved” hosting companies.
DaaSStack will be based on the following components at launch:
1) The free and open XenServer™ Hypervisor
2) GNU/Linux Virtual Machines (Microsoft Windows is fully supported and is also an option)
3) The open VNC remoting protocol
4) DaaSManager – VDIworks’ free DaaS brokering, gateway, provisioning and management application
DaaSManager is a powerful web based management application that combines all the components necessary to deploy Cloud hosted VDI, or Desktops as a Service. In its first release, DaaSManager delivers the following features:
1) Connection brokering with a Web-based interface
2) Integrated access gateway that lets users on the public Internet connect to managed VMs without requiring a separate VPN solution.
3) Integration with the free XenServer™ Hypervisor, including support for VM cloning from templates, VM power management and more.
4) Support for the open, free VNC protocol and VNC clients for PC, Macintosh, Android, iPhone/iPad and BlackBerry Playbook.
5) Support for HTML 5 access clients via full integration with VNC HTML5 app
Users can visit http://www.vdiworks.com to register for a free product download. For more information on DaaSStack and DaaSManager, please visit http://www.daasstack.org. During May 8-10th, DaaSManager will be demonstrated live at VDIworks’ booth #2633 at Interop®, being held at Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas. You can also learn more about VDIworks’ other products on our website, or send your inquiries to info@vdiworks.com