The end of support for Windows XP has come and gone. Everybody knows that. Still, according to NetMarketshare, a remarkable 25% of PCs currently still use Windows XP as their operating system. Organizations have delayed conversion from the 10-year old operating system simply because they didn’t have to. Windows XP became a very stable computing platform and users became comfortable with its functionality. Unfortunately, IT managers also became complacent to the rising cost and complexity that comes with managing PC’s. End of support for XP provides an opportunity to migrate away from both Windows XP and cumbersome PC-based computing, potentially simplifying your entire IT system.

Organizations must migrate for two main reasons: new content and security. New Windows versions are designed for a very rich user experience, relying on constant Internet connectivity for a wide variety of content. In parallel, the advanced security threats require advanced security measures. Microsoft stopped supporting all Windows XP customers on April 8, 2014. In addition to no more technical support and software updates, it means no more security patches.

So if we must move forward, let’s be sure we are being smart about where we are going and how to execute. The execution of a Windows upgrade requires a concentrated planning effort, a clear understanding of the associated expenses, and an approach for implementation challenges, such as application compatibility, managing personal data and incorporating new requirements, including the use of web and cloud resources.

When evaluating options for an OS upgrade, there are three key questions that define the challenge:

1.  How hard is it to perform from a technical point of view?

2.  How easy is the new solution to maintain?

3.  What is the hard dollar cost for hardware, software – and the recurring soft-dollar costs for IT support?

The Options?

• Purchase new PCs: This gives users a fresh start with new hardware and a new operating system. The migration itself is not overly complex in this case, but raises the acquisition costs per user, and requires that IT managers stay in the PC support and replacement business.
• Install the new OS onto each existing PC: This approach provides direct control over the upgrade process, but often at a prohibitive cost. Each machine has to be individually backed up, re-imaged, tested and then put back into the user’s hands. This becomes an increasingly expensive and time-consuming process for the IT administrator. Also, many older PCs may not support newer operating systems and must be replaced anyway.
• Move to virtualized desktops: In this approach, the user’s desktop environment runs on a central server instead of a PC. A thin client device may be connected to a monitor and peripherals to access a personalized desktop on the server over a network. OS and software upgrades are applied in the data center instead of on distributed PCs. Replacing end user PCs with thin client devices lowers the cost of acquiring and maintaining hardware components. This model also simplifies the upgrade and maintenance process tremendously and extends the hardware refresh cycle since thin clients have no moving parts and do not need to be replaced as often as PCs.

Within the server-based computing model, there are two distinct approaches to make desktops available to users:

• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure: VDI is a 1-to-1 environment where each user gets their own virtual machine in the data center. Each desktop runs in a dedicated virtual machine stacked on top of hypervisor software. Each virtual machine has its own copy of a desktop OS and all required applications. Thus an entire OS environment must still be managed for each user, and the organization must provide all the computing, storage and network resources needed to support the virtual machine infrastructure.  The complexity of many desktops still exists, but in a centralized location.
• Session-based Desktop Virtualization: Session Virtualization also provides a desktop environment for each user. But instead, a single instance of both the OS and applications used by a group of users are installed on a single server. Special software then creates virtual desktop sessions, which allow each user to access the shared software, but not the desktops of other users. Session virtualization is supported in hypervisor and bare metal implementations and is inherently more resource efficient and simpler to deploy and maintain than VDI. The same number of shared-session users as a comparable VDI implementation may use as little as 1⁄4 the computing resources.

Now that Microsoft has pulled the plug on Windows XP you must choose an alternate computing environment. Choose now or later, but choose wisely. Before undertaking any OS upgrade, do full compatibility and network stress testing to assure the session-based virtual desktop environment can deliver the performance and benefits designed by the administrator. For those who have been contemplating both a move to Windows 7 or 8 and a move to virtual desktops, it is highly beneficial to combine these rollouts into one effort.

The benefits of a new Windows OS in performance, rich functionality, security and ease of use,
are all powerful reasons to conduct an upgrade. By switching to a session virtualization model in tandem, organizations can not only adopt a new OS, but also simplify their overall hardware deployment at the same time. With this model, you can more easily achieve all the critical migration criteria by reducing acquisition and ongoing costs, the complexity of the migration, and simplify ongoing maintenance demands. The time to migrate is now.

 - Brian Duckering, Sr. Director Product Marketing, NComputing

We recently celebrated our NComputing vSpace platform taking Bronze in the “Best IT Software” category of the Network Products Guide’s 9^th Annual Hot Companies and Best Products Awards.

The Network Products Guide’s Hot Companies and Best Products Awards is a premier information technology awards program that honors the world’s best in performance, products and services, hot technologies, executives and management teams. This is the second year in a row that an NComputing solution has been named a winner. In 2013, our NComputing N-series Thin Client for Citrix HDX solution won Gold in the “Virtualization” category. We were also recognized with an honorable mention in the “Hot Companies” category.

NComputing vSpace, our fully integrated, end-to-end desktop virtualization platform, was designed to drive new levels of efficiency, while delivering features and performance equal to, or better than, a dedicated PC. With vSpace, our customers can establish a fully functional, centrally managed environment in hours or days versus weeks and months. In addition to providing rapid ROI, vSpace requires far less host computing power and resources when compared to traditional VDI-based solutions, and is easy to implement and maintain.

Earlier this year, NComputing vSpace was also highlighted in IDC’s Marketscape Worldwide Client Virtualization Software 2013 Vendor Assessment Report. The report named NComputing a “major player” in the desktop virtualization market and praised our ability to provide “simplified end-to-end virtual user session solution at a low cost, which has bred success in the midmarket and small enterprise.”

The awards keep coming for our desktop virtualization technology, recognizing our product innovation and momentum. We’re honored to receive this latest accolade from the team at Network Products Guide and remain committed to delivering the most innovative client virtualization solutions on the market today.

Desktop virtualization can be expensive. Everyone knows and understands that. But in spite of the often hefty price tag, we deploy it because we know that at the end of the day it’s going to yield more benefits than staying with the status quo of distributed PCs. But, what happens when organizations take the plunge into desktop virtualization but leave those distributed PCs as glorified thin clients to access a user’s virtual desktop and applications? Well, they’re basically throwing money down the toilet.

Yep, that’s right: money down the toilet. Because, at the end of the day IT still has to manage those distributed PCs in, at the very least, all of the following ways:

• Operating Systems require patching to make sure the PCs themselves are not vulnerable to outside attacks. And don’t even get me started if those PCs are still running Windows XP.
• End point software needs to be kept up to date as well (for example, Citrix Receiver or VMWare View client) for an end user to get their virtual desktop and applications properly.
• Moving parts break and we all know that PCs have a lot of them. IT stays stuck monitoring, maintaining, and replacing hardware when a PC inevitably breaks.  

Those are just three of the most common support pitfalls that occur when IT tries to leverage old PCs to deliver virtual resources to end users. Now, to be fair, some users will probably still require a PC (namely, a laptop) when they are more mobile than they are local. But, for any workforce that resides within the local walls of an organization, distributed PCs don’t make much sense anymore.

It isn't just logistics and support where PCs don’t make sense – it is money, too. And even if you remove all the ongoing maintenance costs associated with PCs and break it down just to the acquisition cost, a cheap PC is still going to cost you more than a powerful thin client – as long as you pick the right thin client. You see, even though they look similar, not all thin clients are made the same. Many thin clients are actually more like a mini PC with multiple moving parts and running a Windows-based operating system. All of which can hinder the benefits you’d expect from a thin client and without saving you any money.

This is where System-on-Chip (SoC) thin clients truly differentiate from the rest of the thin client pack. System-on-Chip thin clients leverage a Linux-based chip inside them. Right off the bat, this makes it more affordable than the Windows-based thin clients (which require Windows licensing fees). For Citrix virtualization deployments, a good SoC thin client has Citrix Receiver for Linux baked right into it, which means you can literally drop one of those thin clients on a user’s desk, attach the mouse, monitor and keyboard, and let that user instantly have access to all of their virtual Citrix resources.

Believe it or not, it gets even better for a select few SoC thin clients. Many SoC thin clients are still built with parts from a number of different manufacturers and then pieced together and include multiple virtualization protocols (which sometimes lead to more complicated setup and management). A few thin client vendors, however, own the intellectual property and manufacturing of their System-on-Chip entirely and choose to support one protocol per device. This gives those vendors ultimate control and flexibility to build the right thin clients to meet the specific needs of virtualization customers (in our case, Citrix virtualization customers) at an exceptionally affordable price. Those tailor-made, wholly owned and manufactured System-on-Chip thin clients are leading the way to reducing IT headaches and cost with their virtual deployments.

The N-series from NComputing is one such line of thin clients aimed at solely supporting a Citrix virtualization deployment. The N-series leverages the Numo™ 3 System-on-Chip (SoC) which is owned and manufactured entirely by NComputing. Since the N-series was optimized to deliver only Citrix virtual desktops and applications, it has Citrix Receiver for Linux baked right into its Numo™ 3 chip without any other competing virtualization protocols. When you combine all of these factors, like steering away from PC management and avoiding costly Windows-based thin clients, the N-series is the ultimate solution for any Citrix customer looking to deliver a first class virtual experience to end users at an exceptional cost.

Fore more information about the N-series, please visit http://www.ncomputing.com/products/nseries/overview

XP Migration Made Easier

There are still lots of organizations using Windows XP on user desktop computers.  According to NetNarketShare.com, a service of Net Applications, market share of Windows XP just recently dropped below 25%.  But this means there are still lots of Windows XP PCs in the field. 

According to users who participated in a poll during our recent webinar on XP migration, half of those users are in organizations where 26% or more of their desktop PCs are still running Windows XP.

The obvious issue with Windows XP is end of support from Microsoft which means no more security updates which means your OS in more vulnerable to malware and security breaches.  But as a home user of Windows XP, I started to encounter the dreaded software compatibility issues.  Like this message if I try to go to YouTube with Internet Explorer 8 (the latest version of IE supported on Windows XP):

Even worse, I am now getting a message balloon from my Box Sync application telling me that Box Sync on Windows XP will simple stop working on October 31 (trick – not treat).

So this lack of third party software support, more than lack of security patches, may start motivating more organization to upgrade their desktop OSes.

In the past, a desktop OS upgrade was a good compelling event to look at replacing PCs with newer PCs with the new OS preloaded.  Now, many organizations are replacing their older PCs with thin clients.  Thin clients are solid state, low wattage devices with the electronics to drive keyboard, video and mouse.  But instead of an OS, applications and data residing and executing on the thin client, the thin client communicates to a virtual desktop running on a centralized server in a data center using a remote desktop protocol.

The advantages of a virtual desktop solution with thin clients include:

• Lower energy costs, because thin clients use less power and generate less heat
• More data security, because all of the user data resides in the data center where it is easier to protect from accidental loss and theft.
• Significantly less site visits for repair and troubleshooting end user devices, because the thin client hardware is simpler and more reliable than PCs, and because the users’ OS and applications are running in the data center where they can be analyzed and repaired remotely.

Large enterprises often rely on a technology called Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).  VDI implements virtual desktops as virtual machines (VMs) executing on a software abstraction layer called a hypervisor.  These VMs each contain their own copy of a desktop OS and all associated user applications.  This is great for power users who need to install computationally intensive software and don’t want to worry about affecting other users if they crash their VM. 

The problem with VDI is that it is not the most cost effective way to deliver a remote desktop experience to the typical office worker.  Due to the additional hardware requirements, software licenses, and level of expertise needed to implement, it is common for a VDI solution with thin clients to cost more than getting new PCs for each user.  In fact, one of our customers was quoted a VDI solution that would have cost them almost twice as much as new PCs!  This puts VDI solutions out of the realm of most budget conscious organizations.

But there is a much more cost effective alternative for deploying virtual desktops and thin clients, particularly attractive to those on tight budgets and fewer means, like SMBs, schools and local governments:  NComputing vSpace.   vSpace is different from VDI solutions because it uses session virtualization instead of machine virtualization to present virtual desktops to users.  With session virtualization as many as 100 users can share the same copy of the OS and applications and communicate with the server within their own unique session.  Each user sees their own customized desktop and “my documents” folder.

For session virtualization to work in a Microsoft server environment the RDS role must be enabled on that server and the appropriate Microsoft licenses must be ordered. The vSpace Server component is installed on the RDS host and replaces the native Microsoft remote desktop protocol with our own more efficient UXP protocol.

By using an RDS host, vSpace server and vSpace thin clients, our customers see a typical implementation cost savings of 60% compared to new desktop PCs - even when factoring in the server hardware costs and Microsoft licenses.  Other savings our customers are reporting include 90% savings on energy costs and 50% - 75% savings on routine maintenance and end user support hours.

So if you’re in a budget strapped organization that is still using Windows XP on end user PCs, NComputing vSpace makes it easier to upgrade your OS and save money.

Fall is upon us again, and in North America that means one thing: playoff season in Major League Baseball. At NComputing, we’d usually be watching on the sidelines like (almost) everyone else, but this year we began working on an exciting project with our friends at Tickets.com who provide ticketing for all the Major League Baseball clubs (and many other sporting and arts venues).

You see, earlier this year we discovered that Tickets.com, the world’s largest and most popular event ticketing source, had just completed a major overhaul of their back-end infrastructure. They ripped out the old and replaced it with a brand new Citrix® XenDesktop® deployment so they could serve up virtual desktops across their organization and be much more agile with things like system maintenance and upgrades. When we heard this, we engaged them about what end points they were going to use with their shiny new backend. Much to our delight, they hadn’t landed on an end point yet.

Their primary end user audience was their ticket sales staff who man the booths at stadiums that are selling and printing game tickets. When we spoke with Tickets.com, they had a few clear goals for what their end point of choice would have to deliver to these end users:

• Powerful end user experience that supports their line of business applications as well as high definition multimedia.
• Keep all customer data strictly private and in the data center to maintain PCI compliances.
• Ability to quickly cycle the device if needed while a line of customers was potentially present.
• Help keep the total cost of ownership for their virtualization project down by reducing device acquisition cost and prolonging device refresh cycles.

After a thoughtful evaluation, Tickets.com and NComputing were ready to demonstrate how the N-series thin clients could meet and exceed their end user needs in production. We deployed 100 N-series thin clients across two Major League Baseball stadiums in California. Each stadium required just one day to install the thin clients (which are Citrix Ready HDX Verified) and the results they were hoping for were immediate. Joe Choti, President & CEO of Tickets.com said:

“After an extensive analysis across thin client options to work with our Citrix environment, NComputing is our partner of choice. The NComputing N-series exceeds all of the requirements, and we have a valuable partner whose N-Series thin clients and personnel will play a key role as we build and maintain reliable ticketing technology for our venue partners and their customers.”

The accolades were great, and Joe was so impressed with how the N-series streamlined their end points at the first two stadiums, and Tickets.com is already on board to expand their N-series deployment beyond the first two stadiums. But you don’t have to take my word for any of this, you can check out the video we made with Joe Choti himself right here.

A recent survey by NComputing® found that 75% of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) have employees that use tablets for work. On top of that, according to Tech Pro, 70% of businesses are evaluating or using a hybrid cloud solution. To put it simply: whether or not the response has been proactive or reactive, tablets and the cloud have already arrived in a big way for organizations both large and small.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the financial components of implementing these solutions, but the economics of tablets and the cloud shouldn’t be measured in just dollars and cents. Don’t get me wrong: the monetary component is an important one. But, for small businesses that are looking to do more with less, they should also measure the increase in end user productivity and the decrease in IT complexity that comes along with proactive support for tablets and the cloud.

For end user productivity, it’s all about making sure when you include tablets and the cloud in your IT environment that end users can work better than they did before. A conventional approach to integrate tablets and the cloud into an organization was to simply deliver a virtual Windows® desktop right to the tablet without any optimization. End users (and IT) quickly learned that this wasn’t a productive approach and eventually grew tired of having to switch between their PC and their tablet depending on what they had to accomplish. What end users really wanted was for their PC and their tablet to be interchangeable so they could work on whichever device was most convenient for where they were at that point in time.  To accomplish this, they needed their apps and files delivered in a tablet-friendly form factor, and in such a way that they could access all of their apps and files (internal and external) no matter where they were located and without having to authenticate across a plethora of different systems to get there. This kind of solution is what will truly increase end user productivity.

The second measure that is important to consider is IT complexity. Leveraging tablets and the cloud is not useful or productive in and of itself. What is being implemented ultimately reduces the complexity and solution sprawl within the IT environment. For example, there are tablet and cloud solutions that exist today which are basically just ten different products duct taped together. For IT to implement these “solutions” requires specialized knowledge, long deployments, ongoing management, and a vast increase in things they have to micro manage in their day-to-day IT life. All of this chips away at the efficiency of IT, and thus, the business, which is why it is a crucial factor to consider when evaluating the overall economics of tablet and cloud solutions. What IT really needs here is a solution that has minimal moving parts, can be deployed easily with their preferred architecture (cloud, on-premises, or hybrid), is simple to manage, and meets their tablet and cloud needs without incorporating a bunch of superfluous features that just clutter up the mix.

One big advantage for IT in supporting tablets and the cloud is that, as far as end users are concerned, “the cloud” is really about them having access to the things they need from anywhere, on any device, in an optimized manner. They typically don’t care where those resources are actually located. This means IT can easily have a mix of cloud subscriptions and on-premises products in their IT environment that mesh together seamlessly to provide a combined solution that both boosts end user productivity and reduces IT complexity. These two factors will ensure that the economics of tablets and the cloud work for their business.

Meeting these challenges has eluded IT departments worldwide for many years. But now, through unified workspaces, IT can aggregate both cloud and on-premises resources for end users and deliver the diverse set of applications and files required for an end user to perform their job. And, they can deliver all this to the device of the end user’s choice in a unified and optimized way. With this kind of solution end users can launch a Windows app or a SaaS app, open up a file from their internal network share or their Dropbox account, or pop open their intranet without logging into a cumbersome VPN.

This combination of tablets and the cloud represents a huge boost in end user productivity, as users are no longer tethered to specific devices for specific tasks, they can instead perform all of their tasks from a single device.  It’s also a big decrease in IT complexity since most of the management of the cloud services is minimal and the app and file integration within the unified workspace is built-in and easily configurable. This means that IT’s overall portfolio is smaller and simpler but is still delivering more bang for the buck to end users. All of this makes unified workspaces an exceptionally economical tablet and cloud solution for SMBs in three crucial areas: their budgets, their end user’s productivity, and their overall IT complexity.

For more information on NComputing oneSpace, please visit www.ncomputing.com/products/oneSpace or to learn more about NComputing, visit http://www.ncomputing.com.

NComputing has named co-founder and longtime board member Young Song as its new CEO. Young brings over 20 years of technology vision and entrepreneurial leadership with a focus on products that deliver life-enhancing value to education, business and consumers.

Young replaces Raj Dhingra, who led the transformation of NComputing between 2011 – 2014 from a hardware-driven company focused on the Education, SMB segments and emerging countries, to a company with three product lines, increasingly software-driven, expanding into mid-market and enterprise segments worldwide. NComputing currently holds the #3 position in the worldwide thin client device market with 18% market share[1] and was named a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape Worldwide Client Virtualization Software 2013 Vendor Assessment Report.  Raj will remain with the company in an advisory role and support Young Song and the Board of Directors through this leadership transition.

Young co-founded NComputing in 2003 and successfully led the company through its early growth phases, leading to a current position that encompasses over 70,000 education and business customers and 20 million daily users across over 140 countries worldwide.

After six years of service at NComputing in executive management positions including Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Operating Officer, Young remained an active director of the company. Prior to rejoining NComputing, he founded Booga Ventures, an investment, advisory and mentoring firm dedicated to helping start-up companies commercialize new ideas and technologies or expand into new geographic markets. Young was also Founder and CEO of ZeroDesktop, Inc., a developer of free cloud content management tools and Web apps that enable people to gain control of their documents, emails, photos, videos, music and social content that have become scattered across multiple devices and cloud services.

There are two technologies available to SMBs to deliver a centrally hosted Windows desktop experience to their users: Remote Desktop Services (RDS) or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). RDS uses session virtualization to allow many users to log into the same instance of a Windows server OS and get a Windows desktop experience. VDI uses machine virtualization to allow multiple copies of a Windows desktop OS to run concurrently on the same physical server using a hardware abstraction layer called a hypervisor.

Both technologies allow the desktop applications to execute on a centralized server, allowing the end user PC to be replaced with a less expensive, lower wattage, more compact thin client device.

On the surface, VDI has advantages over RDS: VDI users can reboot or crash their Windows desktop VM and not affect other VDI users on the same server. VDI users can install their own software on their desktop and not affect other users. And VDI users can be offered guaranteed memory and CPU resources. But those advantages come at a high cost. Sharing of memory and disk I/O is much more efficiently handled by a single Windows OS as compared to a hypervisor managing many Windows OSes. The result is that 4 to 10 times as many users can share a single physical server using RDS as compared to VDI.

If that is not enough reason for SMBs to consider RDS over VDI, Microsoft gives you another reason: Virtual Desktop Access rights (VDA), a VDI licensing scheme introduced by Microsoft in 2010.

In order to access a Windows desktop OS running on a hypervisor (ie, a VDI virtual desktop) the device connecting to that desktop OS must either be covered by a Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) contract or must have a VDA subscription. The problem is only certain Windows desktop OS versions are eligible for SA and the SA contract must be purchased within 90 days of the OS purchase. This means that all lower priced Linux thin clients and zero clients are not eligible for SA and even many Windows Embedded thin clients will not be eligible for SA either. Therefore, you are likely to need to buy a VDA subscription for each of your thin client devices that are accessing a VDI virtual desktop. Current list pricing for a VDA subscription is $100 per device per year.

To see the cost implications of VDA, let’s look at an example of a virtualization deployment for 30 thin client devices. With RDS, Microsoft does charge a tax for accessing an RDS host: a server client access license (CAL) and an RDS CAL for each device or user. But these CALs are perpetual licenses – not annual subscriptions. The result of this licensing model difference over three years can be seen in the following table.  

Microsoft Licensing Cost for 30 devices over 3 years: RDS vs. VDI

* Cost based on 30 thin clients (not eligible for SA) over 3 years, Windows Server 2012 R2 standard, Windows 8.1 Pro, US MOL pricing, corporate customers.

The end result over 3 years is 3 times the cost for VDI licensing vs. RDS licensing.

NComputing vSpace leverages Microsoft RDS to deliver virtual desktops to users at the lowest possible licensing and infrastructure costs. But unlike other vendors that use RDS, NComputing is the only company that provides both thin clients and a proprietary optimized remote access protocol. This combination results in better price / performance than other solutions, a single vendor for support, and integrated management of sessions and devices through a single interface. So when you are looking for a virtual desktop solution designed for organizations with limited budget, staff, and expertise, look at NComputing vSpace.

NComputing has long been the go-to company for minimalism when it comes to cost, complexity and, yes, energy consumption. In fact, over the years, many of our customers around the world have won "Green" awards for energy savings simply by buying and using our products instead of someone else's. Now we have won India's top award for Green IT.

A major publication in India "The Financial Express" has just announced the new winners of its Express IT Awards, and for the category of Green Technology, they have chosen NComputing India. See winners in all categories here: http://expressitawards.financialexpress.com/winners/ This is a prestigious award, and the panel of judges are serious power players from the likes of Google and NASSCOM, in addition to some very senior IT personalities in India. The nominees included IBM, Zoho, TCS, SAP, HTC and NComputing.

Congratulations to NComputing India!

We are pleased to announce the release of vSpace Server Software 8.1 and vSpace Management Center 3.6. These are free software updates for SNS subscribers.

vSpace Server 8.1.1.5

vSpace Server 8 introduces new features and functionality to support NComputing oneSpace for Android and iOS. vSpace Server 8.1.1.5 adds the following new features and enhancements:

• Support for WIndows Server 2012 R2
• Video streaming enhancements for vSpace Client
• Landscape and auto-rotate support for oneSpace mobile clients
• Added support for multiple Windows File Shares in oneSpace deployments
• oneSpace support for enhanced mobile app UX features (touch pointer, magnifying glass)
• Bug fixes and stability improvements
• Firmware releases for L300 (v 1.9.301-3) and M300 (v 2.1.1)

For a full listing of supported systems, features and bug fixes, please refer to the release notes. Please note that vSpace Server 8.1 requires VMC 3.6.

VMC 3.6.29

We are releasing VMC 3.6.29 as a virtual appliance that can be installed on Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESXi or Citrix Xen Server. This replaces VMC 3.3.1. New features include:

• Simple to deploy in minutes as a Virtual Appliance
• Supports import of site certificates when importing profiles from N-series devices
• Supports special characters in name fields
• Option to reset zone membership when selecting a new management zone
• LDAP integration enhancements
• Expanded supportn for multiple N-series profiles
• Extensive bug fixes and stability improvements

For a full listing of supported systems, features and bug fixes, please refer to the release notes.

These releases are available through your authorized NComputing partner/reseller.

We are excited to announce that, as of Monday, February 23^rd   2015, certain core assets of NComputing, Inc. have been acquired by ZeroDesktop, Inc., a leading developer of next generation Cloud Computing solutions.

Young Song, the original founder of NComputing, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Buyer and Klaus Maier, NComputing co-founder, is joining ZeroDesktop as Chief Technology Officer to lead all new product development.  Existing NComputing customers and partners will see ZeroDesktop continue to support the NComputing brand, for the assets it has acquired.

ZeroDesktop is committed to supporting NComputing’s 70,000 customers and their 20 million users in 140 countries. On a daily basis the 20 million users of NComputing’s vSpace desktop virtualization platform regularly access Windows and Linux desktops from over 4 million NComputing thin-client devices. To continue to support and develop for these customers ZeroDesktop will retain the NComputing employees and will continue to be dedicated to the NComputing product business.  Now, with over 100 employees worldwide, ZeroDesktop is well positioned to continue the leadership position that NComputing developed in the market as the #1 thin-client vendor in APAC and the #3 thin-client vendor worldwide (IDC, 2014).

Back to Basic Core: Simple, Powerful, Affordable!

Over the next 12-months ZeroDesktop is committed to making investments in developing the NComputing product roadmap for the vSpace virtualization platform, thin-client hardware and software clients to access the vSpace Server Software.

The new software roadmap includes major new releases of the vSpace Server Software for both Windows and Linux desktop virtualization, vSpace software clients for Chromebooks, iOS and Android tablets along with HTML5 browser support to  extend the reach of the vSpace desktop virtualization solution to any end point device.

New updated versions of NComputing’s hardware thin-clients for vSpace are planned that will provide new features that customers have been long demanding.  And, the Citrix HDX 3D Pro certified N-Series enterprise thin clients will be enhanced with new models with enhanced features and the option of additional, third party thin client protocol support.

We were very pleased to be able to complete the first two product releases from this roadmap, for vSpace Server Software 8.1 and vSpace Management Center 3.6, in February, 2015 during the acquisition by ZeroDesktop, Inc.

During the next few weeks we will be announcing the next major update to the vSpace Server Software for Windows that will not require separate management services.

About ZeroDesktop

ZeroDesktop, Inc. is a leading developer of next generation Cloud Computing Solution, Cloud Storage Service Brokerage and Mobile Apps for Telecoms, ISVs, OEMs and SMB.

The ZeroDesktop Infrastructure aggregates scattered digital content from local storage, network drives and cloud services providing unified access by PCs, tablets and mobile devices.

ZeroDesktop is privately held, is headquartered in San Mateo, CA and has over 100 employees worldwide with development centers in Silicon Valley, Asia and Europe. The core management team consists of seasoned veterans in the industry with combined experiences in hardware and software technologies. ZeroDesktop’s Cloud technologies have been adopted and deployed by many leading Telecoms, OEMs and ISVs in Europe and Asia.

To meet the new management team please click here.

FAQ’s

How is ZeroDesktop funded?

ZeroDesktop is a privately held company that is 100% funded through private investments.

Who do I contact for support now?

There are no changes being made at this time to the current support process for NComputing products. You can continue to obtain support for your NComputing products from your existing support contacts.

I need to purchase additional thin clients and/or software licenses for my existing vSpace deployment, who do I contact?

There are no changes being made at this time to the current supply chain for NComputing products. You should continue to purchase from your current supplier of NComputing products.

Exactly which NComputing products will ZeroDesktop continue to support?

ZeroDesktop has acquired the rights to sell and support the vSpace Server Software, vSpace Management Center, vSpace Client and all hardware thin clients including the L-Series, M-Series, X-Series thin clients for vSpace and the enterprise class N-Series for Citrix.

What about oneSpace, can I still purchase, or obtain support for oneSpace from ZeroDesktop?

Unfortunately, no. After careful consideration ZeroDesktop decided not to acquire the oneSpace product. As such ZeroDesktop is unable to sell, or support, the oneSpace solution.

I purchased NComputing thin client hardware products within the past 12-months, what happens to my warranty?

We will be honoring all existing hardware warranties – no additional costs will be incurred by the customer. All existing and new RMA issues will be resolved through your normal support channels.

I purchased NComputing software and support products, what happens to my support agreement?

With one software product exception we will be honoring all existing support contracts – no additional costs will be incurred by the customer. All existing support inquiries will be responded to.

ZeroDesktop did not acquire any rights to the NComputing oneSpace product, as a result we are unable to provide support for this product.

Will ZeroDesktop continue to develop a roadmap for and support all NComputing products?

With the exception of the NComputing oneSpace product, which ZeroDesktop did not acquire the rights to; we are fully committed to roadmap support for the VSpace Server virtualization platform and our hardware thin client roadmap for both vSpace and other enterprise thin client protocols. This year will see a plethora of new features and new product offerings being introduced under the new ownership (click here for details). This will be a profitable business that will continue to fund new investments in product enhancements and future new product development.

I am an NComputing partner, distributor or reseller; how does this acquisition affect me?

ZeroDesktop has no plans to make any changes to the existing NComputing partner program as a result of the acquisition.

The end of support for Windows XP has come and gone. Everybody knows that. Still, according to NetMarketshare, a remarkable 25% of PCs currently still use Windows XP as their operating system. Organizations have delayed conversion from the 10-year old operating system simply because they didn’t have to. Windows XP became a very stable computing platform and users became comfortable with its functionality. Unfortunately, IT managers also became complacent to the rising cost and complexity that comes with managing PC’s. End of support for XP provides an opportunity to migrate away from both Windows XP and cumbersome PC-based computing, potentially simplifying your entire IT system.

Organizations must migrate for two main reasons: new content and security. New Windows versions are designed for a very rich user experience, relying on constant Internet connectivity for a wide variety of content. In parallel, the advanced security threats require advanced security measures. Microsoft stopped supporting all Windows XP customers on April 8, 2014. In addition to no more technical support and software updates, it means no more security patches.

So if we must move forward, let’s be sure we are being smart about where we are going and how to execute. The execution of a Windows upgrade requires a concentrated planning effort, a clear understanding of the associated expenses, and an approach for implementation challenges, such as application compatibility, managing personal data and incorporating new requirements, including the use of web and cloud resources.

When evaluating options for an OS upgrade, there are three key questions that define the challenge:

1.  How hard is it to perform from a technical point of view?

2.  How easy is the new solution to maintain?

3.  What is the hard dollar cost for hardware, software – and the recurring soft-dollar costs for IT support?

The Options?

• Purchase new PCs: This gives users a fresh start with new hardware and a new operating system. The migration itself is not overly complex in this case, but raises the acquisition costs per user, and requires that IT managers stay in the PC support and replacement business.
• Install the new OS onto each existing PC: This approach provides direct control over the upgrade process, but often at a prohibitive cost. Each machine has to be individually backed up, re-imaged, tested and then put back into the user’s hands. This becomes an increasingly expensive and time-consuming process for the IT administrator. Also, many older PCs may not support newer operating systems and must be replaced anyway.
• Move to virtualized desktops: In this approach, the user’s desktop environment runs on a central server instead of a PC. A thin client device may be connected to a monitor and peripherals to access a personalized desktop on the server over a network. OS and software upgrades are applied in the data center instead of on distributed PCs. Replacing end user PCs with thin client devices lowers the cost of acquiring and maintaining hardware components. This model also simplifies the upgrade and maintenance process tremendously and extends the hardware refresh cycle since thin clients have no moving parts and do not need to be replaced as often as PCs.

Within the server-based computing model, there are two distinct approaches to make desktops available to users:

• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure: VDI is a 1-to-1 environment where each user gets their own virtual machine in the data center. Each desktop runs in a dedicated virtual machine stacked on top of hypervisor software. Each virtual machine has its own copy of a desktop OS and all required applications. Thus an entire OS environment must still be managed for each user, and the organization must provide all the computing, storage and network resources needed to support the virtual machine infrastructure.  The complexity of many desktops still exists, but in a centralized location.
• Session-based Desktop Virtualization: Session Virtualization also provides a desktop environment for each user. But instead, a single instance of both the OS and applications used by a group of users are installed on a single server. Special software then creates virtual desktop sessions, which allow each user to access the shared software, but not the desktops of other users. Session virtualization is supported in hypervisor and bare metal implementations and is inherently more resource efficient and simpler to deploy and maintain than VDI. The same number of shared-session users as a comparable VDI implementation may use as little as 1⁄4 the computing resources.

Now that Microsoft has pulled the plug on Windows XP you must choose an alternate computing environment. Choose now or later, but choose wisely. Before undertaking any OS upgrade, do full compatibility and network stress testing to assure the session-based virtual desktop environment can deliver the performance and benefits designed by the administrator. For those who have been contemplating both a move to Windows 7 or 8 and a move to virtual desktops, it is highly beneficial to combine these rollouts into one effort.

The benefits of a new Windows OS in performance, rich functionality, security and ease of use,
are all powerful reasons to conduct an upgrade. By switching to a session virtualization model in tandem, organizations can not only adopt a new OS, but also simplify their overall hardware deployment at the same time. With this model, you can more easily achieve all the critical migration criteria by reducing acquisition and ongoing costs, the complexity of the migration, and simplify ongoing maintenance demands. The time to migrate is now.

 - Brian Duckering, Sr. Director Product Marketing, NComputing

Desktop virtualization can be expensive. Everyone knows and understands that. But in spite of the often hefty price tag, we deploy it because we know that at the end of the day it’s going to yield more benefits than staying with the status quo of distributed PCs. But, what happens when organizations take the plunge into desktop virtualization but leave those distributed PCs as glorified thin clients to access a user’s virtual desktop and applications? Well, they’re basically throwing money down the toilet.

Yep, that’s right: money down the toilet. Because, at the end of the day IT still has to manage those distributed PCs in, at the very least, all of the following ways:

• Operating Systems require patching to make sure the PCs themselves are not vulnerable to outside attacks. And don’t even get me started if those PCs are still running Windows XP.
• End point software needs to be kept up to date as well (for example, Citrix Receiver or VMWare View client) for an end user to get their virtual desktop and applications properly.
• Moving parts break and we all know that PCs have a lot of them. IT stays stuck monitoring, maintaining, and replacing hardware when a PC inevitably breaks.  

Those are just three of the most common support pitfalls that occur when IT tries to leverage old PCs to deliver virtual resources to end users. Now, to be fair, some users will probably still require a PC (namely, a laptop) when they are more mobile than they are local. But, for any workforce that resides within the local walls of an organization, distributed PCs don’t make much sense anymore.

It isn't just logistics and support where PCs don’t make sense – it is money, too. And even if you remove all the ongoing maintenance costs associated with PCs and break it down just to the acquisition cost, a cheap PC is still going to cost you more than a powerful thin client – as long as you pick the right thin client. You see, even though they look similar, not all thin clients are made the same. Many thin clients are actually more like a mini PC with multiple moving parts and running a Windows-based operating system. All of which can hinder the benefits you’d expect from a thin client and without saving you any money.

This is where System-on-Chip (SoC) thin clients truly differentiate from the rest of the thin client pack. System-on-Chip thin clients leverage a Linux-based chip inside them. Right off the bat, this makes it more affordable than the Windows-based thin clients (which require Windows licensing fees). For Citrix virtualization deployments, a good SoC thin client has Citrix Receiver for Linux baked right into it, which means you can literally drop one of those thin clients on a user’s desk, attach the mouse, monitor and keyboard, and let that user instantly have access to all of their virtual Citrix resources.

Believe it or not, it gets even better for a select few SoC thin clients. Many SoC thin clients are still built with parts from a number of different manufacturers and then pieced together and include multiple virtualization protocols (which sometimes lead to more complicated setup and management). A few thin client vendors, however, own the intellectual property and manufacturing of their System-on-Chip entirely and choose to support one protocol per device. This gives those vendors ultimate control and flexibility to build the right thin clients to meet the specific needs of virtualization customers (in our case, Citrix virtualization customers) at an exceptionally affordable price. Those tailor-made, wholly owned and manufactured System-on-Chip thin clients are leading the way to reducing IT headaches and cost with their virtual deployments.

The N-series from NComputing is one such line of thin clients aimed at solely supporting a Citrix virtualization deployment. The N-series leverages the Numo™ 3 System-on-Chip (SoC) which is owned and manufactured entirely by NComputing. Since the N-series was optimized to deliver only Citrix virtual desktops and applications, it has Citrix Receiver for Linux baked right into its Numo™ 3 chip without any other competing virtualization protocols. When you combine all of these factors, like steering away from PC management and avoiding costly Windows-based thin clients, the N-series is the ultimate solution for any Citrix customer looking to deliver a first class virtual experience to end users at an exceptional cost.

Fore more information about the N-series, please visit http://www.ncomputing.com/products/nseries/overview

XP Migration Made Easier

There are still lots of organizations using Windows XP on user desktop computers.  According to NetNarketShare.com, a service of Net Applications, market share of Windows XP just recently dropped below 25%.  But this means there are still lots of Windows XP PCs in the field. 

According to users who participated in a poll during our recent webinar on XP migration, half of those users are in organizations where 26% or more of their desktop PCs are still running Windows XP.

The obvious issue with Windows XP is end of support from Microsoft which means no more security updates which means your OS in more vulnerable to malware and security breaches.  But as a home user of Windows XP, I started to encounter the dreaded software compatibility issues.  Like this message if I try to go to YouTube with Internet Explorer 8 (the latest version of IE supported on Windows XP):

Even worse, I am now getting a message balloon from my Box Sync application telling me that Box Sync on Windows XP will simple stop working on October 31 (trick – not treat).

So this lack of third party software support, more than lack of security patches, may start motivating more organization to upgrade their desktop OSes.

In the past, a desktop OS upgrade was a good compelling event to look at replacing PCs with newer PCs with the new OS preloaded.  Now, many organizations are replacing their older PCs with thin clients.  Thin clients are solid state, low wattage devices with the electronics to drive keyboard, video and mouse.  But instead of an OS, applications and data residing and executing on the thin client, the thin client communicates to a virtual desktop running on a centralized server in a data center using a remote desktop protocol.

The advantages of a virtual desktop solution with thin clients include:

• Lower energy costs, because thin clients use less power and generate less heat
• More data security, because all of the user data resides in the data center where it is easier to protect from accidental loss and theft.
• Significantly less site visits for repair and troubleshooting end user devices, because the thin client hardware is simpler and more reliable than PCs, and because the users’ OS and applications are running in the data center where they can be analyzed and repaired remotely.

Large enterprises often rely on a technology called Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).  VDI implements virtual desktops as virtual machines (VMs) executing on a software abstraction layer called a hypervisor.  These VMs each contain their own copy of a desktop OS and all associated user applications.  This is great for power users who need to install computationally intensive software and don’t want to worry about affecting other users if they crash their VM. 

The problem with VDI is that it is not the most cost effective way to deliver a remote desktop experience to the typical office worker.  Due to the additional hardware requirements, software licenses, and level of expertise needed to implement, it is common for a VDI solution with thin clients to cost more than getting new PCs for each user.  In fact, one of our customers was quoted a VDI solution that would have cost them almost twice as much as new PCs!  This puts VDI solutions out of the realm of most budget conscious organizations.

But there is a much more cost effective alternative for deploying virtual desktops and thin clients, particularly attractive to those on tight budgets and fewer means, like SMBs, schools and local governments:  NComputing vSpace.   vSpace is different from VDI solutions because it uses session virtualization instead of machine virtualization to present virtual desktops to users.  With session virtualization as many as 100 users can share the same copy of the OS and applications and communicate with the server within their own unique session.  Each user sees their own customized desktop and “my documents” folder.

For session virtualization to work in a Microsoft server environment the RDS role must be enabled on that server and the appropriate Microsoft licenses must be ordered. The vSpace Server component is installed on the RDS host and replaces the native Microsoft remote desktop protocol with our own more efficient UXP protocol.

By using an RDS host, vSpace server and vSpace thin clients, our customers see a typical implementation cost savings of 60% compared to new desktop PCs - even when factoring in the server hardware costs and Microsoft licenses.  Other savings our customers are reporting include 90% savings on energy costs and 50% - 75% savings on routine maintenance and end user support hours.

So if you’re in a budget strapped organization that is still using Windows XP on end user PCs, NComputing vSpace makes it easier to upgrade your OS and save money.

Fall is upon us again, and in North America that means one thing: playoff season in Major League Baseball. At NComputing, we’d usually be watching on the sidelines like (almost) everyone else, but this year we began working on an exciting project with our friends at Tickets.com who provide ticketing for all the Major League Baseball clubs (and many other sporting and arts venues).

You see, earlier this year we discovered that Tickets.com, the world’s largest and most popular event ticketing source, had just completed a major overhaul of their back-end infrastructure. They ripped out the old and replaced it with a brand new Citrix® XenDesktop® deployment so they could serve up virtual desktops across their organization and be much more agile with things like system maintenance and upgrades. When we heard this, we engaged them about what end points they were going to use with their shiny new backend. Much to our delight, they hadn’t landed on an end point yet.

Their primary end user audience was their ticket sales staff who man the booths at stadiums that are selling and printing game tickets. When we spoke with Tickets.com, they had a few clear goals for what their end point of choice would have to deliver to these end users:

• Powerful end user experience that supports their line of business applications as well as high definition multimedia.
• Keep all customer data strictly private and in the data center to maintain PCI compliances.
• Ability to quickly cycle the device if needed while a line of customers was potentially present.
• Help keep the total cost of ownership for their virtualization project down by reducing device acquisition cost and prolonging device refresh cycles.

After a thoughtful evaluation, Tickets.com and NComputing were ready to demonstrate how the N-series thin clients could meet and exceed their end user needs in production. We deployed 100 N-series thin clients across two Major League Baseball stadiums in California. Each stadium required just one day to install the thin clients (which are Citrix Ready HDX Verified) and the results they were hoping for were immediate. Joe Choti, President & CEO of Tickets.com said:

“After an extensive analysis across thin client options to work with our Citrix environment, NComputing is our partner of choice. The NComputing N-series exceeds all of the requirements, and we have a valuable partner whose N-Series thin clients and personnel will play a key role as we build and maintain reliable ticketing technology for our venue partners and their customers.”

The accolades were great, and Joe was so impressed with how the N-series streamlined their end points at the first two stadiums, and Tickets.com is already on board to expand their N-series deployment beyond the first two stadiums. But you don’t have to take my word for any of this, you can check out the video we made with Joe Choti himself right here.

NComputing has named co-founder and longtime board member Young Song as its new CEO. Young brings over 20 years of technology vision and entrepreneurial leadership with a focus on products that deliver life-enhancing value to education, business and consumers.

Young replaces Raj Dhingra, who led the transformation of NComputing between 2011 – 2014 from a hardware-driven company focused on the Education, SMB segments and emerging countries, to a company with three product lines, increasingly software-driven, expanding into mid-market and enterprise segments worldwide. NComputing currently holds the #3 position in the worldwide thin client device market with 18% market share[1] and was named a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape Worldwide Client Virtualization Software 2013 Vendor Assessment Report.  Raj will remain with the company in an advisory role and support Young Song and the Board of Directors through this leadership transition.

Young co-founded NComputing in 2003 and successfully led the company through its early growth phases, leading to a current position that encompasses over 70,000 education and business customers and 20 million daily users across over 140 countries worldwide.

After six years of service at NComputing in executive management positions including Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Operating Officer, Young remained an active director of the company. Prior to rejoining NComputing, he founded Booga Ventures, an investment, advisory and mentoring firm dedicated to helping start-up companies commercialize new ideas and technologies or expand into new geographic markets. Young was also Founder and CEO of ZeroDesktop, Inc., a developer of free cloud content management tools and Web apps that enable people to gain control of their documents, emails, photos, videos, music and social content that have become scattered across multiple devices and cloud services.

There are two technologies available to SMBs to deliver a centrally hosted Windows desktop experience to their users: Remote Desktop Services (RDS) or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). RDS uses session virtualization to allow many users to log into the same instance of a Windows server OS and get a Windows desktop experience. VDI uses machine virtualization to allow multiple copies of a Windows desktop OS to run concurrently on the same physical server using a hardware abstraction layer called a hypervisor.

Both technologies allow the desktop applications to execute on a centralized server, allowing the end user PC to be replaced with a less expensive, lower wattage, more compact thin client device.

On the surface, VDI has advantages over RDS: VDI users can reboot or crash their Windows desktop VM and not affect other VDI users on the same server. VDI users can install their own software on their desktop and not affect other users. And VDI users can be offered guaranteed memory and CPU resources. But those advantages come at a high cost. Sharing of memory and disk I/O is much more efficiently handled by a single Windows OS as compared to a hypervisor managing many Windows OSes. The result is that 4 to 10 times as many users can share a single physical server using RDS as compared to VDI.

If that is not enough reason for SMBs to consider RDS over VDI, Microsoft gives you another reason: Virtual Desktop Access rights (VDA), a VDI licensing scheme introduced by Microsoft in 2010.

In order to access a Windows desktop OS running on a hypervisor (ie, a VDI virtual desktop) the device connecting to that desktop OS must either be covered by a Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) contract or must have a VDA subscription. The problem is only certain Windows desktop OS versions are eligible for SA and the SA contract must be purchased within 90 days of the OS purchase. This means that all lower priced Linux thin clients and zero clients are not eligible for SA and even many Windows Embedded thin clients will not be eligible for SA either. Therefore, you are likely to need to buy a VDA subscription for each of your thin client devices that are accessing a VDI virtual desktop. Current list pricing for a VDA subscription is $100 per device per year.

To see the cost implications of VDA, let’s look at an example of a virtualization deployment for 30 thin client devices. With RDS, Microsoft does charge a tax for accessing an RDS host: a server client access license (CAL) and an RDS CAL for each device or user. But these CALs are perpetual licenses – not annual subscriptions. The result of this licensing model difference over three years can be seen in the following table.  

Microsoft Licensing Cost for 30 devices over 3 years: RDS vs. VDI

* Cost based on 30 thin clients (not eligible for SA) over 3 years, Windows Server 2012 R2 standard, Windows 8.1 Pro, US MOL pricing, corporate customers.

The end result over 3 years is 3 times the cost for VDI licensing vs. RDS licensing.

NComputing vSpace leverages Microsoft RDS to deliver virtual desktops to users at the lowest possible licensing and infrastructure costs. But unlike other vendors that use RDS, NComputing is the only company that provides both thin clients and a proprietary optimized remote access protocol. This combination results in better price / performance than other solutions, a single vendor for support, and integrated management of sessions and devices through a single interface. So when you are looking for a virtual desktop solution designed for organizations with limited budget, staff, and expertise, look at NComputing vSpace.

NComputing has long been the go-to company for minimalism when it comes to cost, complexity and, yes, energy consumption. In fact, over the years, many of our customers around the world have won "Green" awards for energy savings simply by buying and using our products instead of someone else's. Now we have won India's top award for Green IT.

A major publication in India "The Financial Express" has just announced the new winners of its Express IT Awards, and for the category of Green Technology, they have chosen NComputing India. See winners in all categories here: http://expressitawards.financialexpress.com/winners/ This is a prestigious award, and the panel of judges are serious power players from the likes of Google and NASSCOM, in addition to some very senior IT personalities in India. The nominees included IBM, Zoho, TCS, SAP, HTC and NComputing.

Congratulations to NComputing India!

We are pleased to announce the release of vSpace Server Software 8.1 and vSpace Management Center 3.6. These are free software updates for SNS subscribers.

vSpace Server 8.1.1.5

vSpace Server 8 introduces new features and functionality to support NComputing oneSpace for Android and iOS. vSpace Server 8.1.1.5 adds the following new features and enhancements:

• Support for WIndows Server 2012 R2
• Video streaming enhancements for vSpace Client
• Landscape and auto-rotate support for oneSpace mobile clients
• Added support for multiple Windows File Shares in oneSpace deployments
• oneSpace support for enhanced mobile app UX features (touch pointer, magnifying glass)
• Bug fixes and stability improvements
• Firmware releases for L300 (v 1.9.301-3) and M300 (v 2.1.1)

For a full listing of supported systems, features and bug fixes, please refer to the release notes. Please note that vSpace Server 8.1 requires VMC 3.6.

VMC 3.6.29

We are releasing VMC 3.6.29 as a virtual appliance that can be installed on Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESXi or Citrix Xen Server. This replaces VMC 3.3.1. New features include:

• Simple to deploy in minutes as a Virtual Appliance
• Supports import of site certificates when importing profiles from N-series devices
• Supports special characters in name fields
• Option to reset zone membership when selecting a new management zone
• LDAP integration enhancements
• Expanded supportn for multiple N-series profiles
• Extensive bug fixes and stability improvements

For a full listing of supported systems, features and bug fixes, please refer to the release notes.

These releases are available through your authorized NComputing partner/reseller.

We are excited to announce that, as of Monday, February 23^rd   2015, certain core assets of NComputing, Inc. have been acquired by ZeroDesktop, Inc., a leading developer of next generation Cloud Computing solutions.

Young Song, the original founder of NComputing, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Buyer and Richard Sah, ZeroDesktop co-founder, is joing as Chief Product Officer to lead all new product development.  Existing NComputing customers and partners will see ZeroDesktop continue to support the NComputing brand, for the assets it has acquired.

ZeroDesktop is committed to supporting NComputing’s 70,000 customers and their 20 million users in 140 countries. On a daily basis the 20 million users of NComputing’s vSpace desktop virtualization platform regularly access Windows and Linux desktops from over 4 million NComputing thin-client devices. To continue to support and develop for these customers ZeroDesktop will retain the NComputing employees and will continue to be dedicated to the NComputing product business.  Now, with over 100 employees worldwide, ZeroDesktop is well positioned to continue the leadership position that NComputing developed in the market as the #1 thin-client vendor in APAC and the #3 thin-client vendor worldwide (IDC, 2014).

Back to Basic Core: Simple, Powerful, Affordable!

Over the next 12-months ZeroDesktop is committed to making investments in developing the NComputing product roadmap for the vSpace virtualization platform, thin-client hardware and software clients to access the vSpace Server Software.

The new software roadmap includes major new releases of the vSpace Server Software for both Windows and Linux desktop virtualization, vSpace software clients for Chromebooks, iOS and Android tablets along with HTML5 browser support to  extend the reach of the vSpace desktop virtualization solution to any end point device.

New updated versions of NComputing’s hardware thin-clients for vSpace are planned that will provide new features that customers have been long demanding.  And, the Citrix HDX 3D Pro certified N-Series enterprise thin clients will be enhanced with new models with enhanced features and the option of additional, third party thin client protocol support.

We were very pleased to be able to complete the first two product releases from this roadmap, for vSpace Server Software 8.1 and vSpace Management Center 3.6, in February, 2015 during the acquisition by ZeroDesktop, Inc.

During the next few weeks we will be announcing the next major update to the vSpace Server Software for Windows that will not require separate management services.

About ZeroDesktop

ZeroDesktop, Inc. is a leading developer of next generation Cloud Computing Solution, Cloud Storage Service Brokerage and Mobile Apps for Telecoms, ISVs, OEMs and SMB.

The ZeroDesktop Infrastructure aggregates scattered digital content from local storage, network drives and cloud services providing unified access by PCs, tablets and mobile devices.

ZeroDesktop is privately held, is headquartered in San Mateo, CA and has over 100 employees worldwide with development centers in Silicon Valley, Asia and Europe. The core management team consists of seasoned veterans in the industry with combined experiences in hardware and software technologies. ZeroDesktop’s Cloud technologies have been adopted and deployed by many leading Telecoms, OEMs and ISVs in Europe and Asia.

To meet the new management team please click here.

FAQ’s

How is ZeroDesktop funded?

ZeroDesktop is a privately held company that is 100% funded through private investments.

Who do I contact for support now?

There are no changes being made at this time to the current support process for NComputing products. You can continue to obtain support for your NComputing products from your existing support contacts.

I need to purchase additional thin clients and/or software licenses for my existing vSpace deployment, who do I contact?

There are no changes being made at this time to the current supply chain for NComputing products. You should continue to purchase from your current supplier of NComputing products.

Exactly which NComputing products will ZeroDesktop continue to support?

ZeroDesktop has acquired the rights to sell and support the vSpace Server Software, vSpace Management Center, vSpace Client and all hardware thin clients including the L-Series, M-Series, X-Series thin clients for vSpace and the enterprise class N-Series for Citrix.

What about oneSpace, can I still purchase, or obtain support for oneSpace from ZeroDesktop?

Unfortunately, no. After careful consideration ZeroDesktop decided not to acquire the oneSpace product. As such ZeroDesktop is unable to sell, or support, the oneSpace solution.

I purchased NComputing thin client hardware products within the past 12-months, what happens to my warranty?

We will be honoring all existing hardware warranties – no additional costs will be incurred by the customer. All existing and new RMA issues will be resolved through your normal support channels.

I purchased NComputing software and support products, what happens to my support agreement?

With one software product exception we will be honoring all existing support contracts – no additional costs will be incurred by the customer. All existing support inquiries will be responded to.

ZeroDesktop did not acquire any rights to the NComputing oneSpace product, as a result we are unable to provide support for this product.

Will ZeroDesktop continue to develop a roadmap for and support all NComputing products?

With the exception of the NComputing oneSpace product, which ZeroDesktop did not acquire the rights to; we are fully committed to roadmap support for the VSpace Server virtualization platform and our hardware thin client roadmap for both vSpace and other enterprise thin client protocols. This year will see a plethora of new features and new product offerings being introduced under the new ownership (click here for details). This will be a profitable business that will continue to fund new investments in product enhancements and future new product development.

I am an NComputing partner, distributor or reseller; how does this acquisition affect me?

ZeroDesktop has no plans to make any changes to the existing NComputing partner program as a result of the acquisition.