VERDE

Virtual Bridges Launches Teacher’s Pet Program, A Free Virtual Desktop Offering

May 20, 2011 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Virtual Bridges has announced the launch of the Teacher’s Pet Program, an exclusive opportunity for K-12 school districts to receive complimentary desktop virtualization licenses.

The program is designed to support educators facing severely reduced budgets by providing technology that eases desktop management, reduces labor costs, extends PC lifecycles and reduces security risks.

The Teacher’s Pet Program is open to K-12 organizations at accredited institutions in the United States. In addition to 50 free licenses of VERDE VDI Gen2, the program offers:

– Single server deployment
– Remote install and troubleshooting
– E-mail support 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CT, Monday through Friday
– Annual maintenance of only $2,000 for all 50 seats
– A 50 percent discount on additional licenses purchased within 60 days

VERDE eliminates the need to track, maintain, upgrade, repair and keep virus-free all desktop and notebook computers scattered across the district. Additionally, VERDE provides flexibility, allowing teachers and students to securely access desktops regardless of whether they are in the class room, working from home or studying in the library.

The Teacher’s Pet program is running through June 30, 2011.

Virtual Bridges Releases New VERDE Version

August 4, 2010 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Virtual Bridges, provider of desktop virtualization solutions and originator of VDI, disconnected and branch-office use, has announced the immediate availability of VERDE 4.2.

In less than three months since the release of VERDE 4, the new-version capabilities underscore the company’s commitment to meet market needs through rapid innovation, including extending the reach of VERDE to iPad and iPhone users to serve growing mobile workforce markets.

New VERDE 4.2 functionality includes:

iVERDE

Built on the open-source iDesktop client, iVERDE allows iPad and iPhone users to access VERDE Windows 7, Windows XP and Linux desktops. iVERDE is fully integrated with the VERDE distributed connection broker and user console, providing a user experience identical to any other VERDE client. iVERDE has been contributed to the open-source community under the GPL license, and is available through Apple’s AppsStore.

Active Directory integration for dynamic desktop sessions

Combines the benefits of VERDE’s unique dynamic gold master provisioning while fully leveraging the IT department’s investment in Active Directory user, group and machine policies and controls. Unlike legacy solutions that employ technologies like linked clones, now once a desktop becomes part of an Active Directory, it becomes a dynamic, yet unique and personalized desktop instance.

Enhanced security with support for two-factor authentication

Offers customers the ability to use industry-standard, two-factor authentication technologies, including RSA SecureID, Safeword and other RADIUS-based solutions to secure virtual desktop sessions.

Customizable VERDE LEAF (Live Environment Access Format):

Customers can personalize the VERDE Off-line VDI Type 1 client side hypervisor, LEAF, with specific branding and custom login scripts. This allows customers to personalize the login experience for end users using the VERDE client-side hypervisor. Virtual Bridges is the only vendor to provide an integrated VDI and Off-line VDI (client side hypervisor) experience that works from the same gold image. VERDE LEAF also features bi-directional data synchronization that users enjoy a consistent environment whether accessing from VDI or Off-Line VDI.

IBM, Virtual Bridges and Canonical Introduce New Linux-server Based Virtual Desktop

July 30, 2009 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Virtual Bridges, IBM and Canonical announced today the immediate availability of the newest version of a Linux-server based virtual desktop with the release of Virtual Bridges’ VERDE 2.0 software.

The Open Virtual Client desktop is a combination of IBM’s Smart Client desktop software, Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux servers and Linux desktop, and Virtual Bridges’ VERDE Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI )offering.

VERDE 2.0 delivers several industry firsts, including:

· Addresses both private cloud and public cloud requirements.

· Meets both the needs of the connected user and the disconnected user.

· Simultaneously and seamlessly manages both Windows and Linux desktop sessions.

With today’s announcement, VERDE 2.0 goes beyond virtualizing the desktop to give users significant new functionality: providing them software access when the users are disconnected from the Internet. VERDE 2.0accomplishes this by integrating a lightweight, client-side hypervisor based on a new Self-Managing Auto Replicating Technology (SMART) protocol. The SMART protocol synchronizes a replicated cache running on the client-side hypervisor with the managed image on the server, the same image that is used to populate VDI sessions.

The Open Virtual Client desktop offers users of private or public clouds the ability to lower costs by deploying a Microsoft-alternative in either the whole organization or for particular user segments, and this can be done smoothly over time. Because VERDE supports both Linux and Microsoft Windows guest sessions, organizations can broadly realize the benefits of VDI , whether they move to Linux desktops or not. They can also gain additional cost savings that come from moving some user segments to Linux desktops. Introducing thin clients, where appropriate, can further increase cost saving opportunities.

The IBM Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS) includes open standards-based email, word processing, spreadsheets, unified communication, social networking and more, providing users with exceptional productivity application alternatives. IBM’s smart work client software is based on IBM Lotus Symphony, IBM Lotus Notes and Lotus applications. IBM Lotus Symphony supports the Open Document Format (ODF) standard, the basis for global document interoperability.

VERDE provides protection aginst viruses, malware and other damage while users are disconnected. If a session is corrupted by malware, the user can restart the session and the session is launched from the write-protected replicated cache of the managed image, on the local disk. This ability eliminates costly help desk intervention and makes the environment malware-resistant.

VERDE 2.0 offers the simplest licensing in the industry with a complete offering available for one simple, paid-up, per seat price. All of the components are included in this hassle-free licensing model. VERDE 2.0 is available from partners as an Open Virtual Client bundle. The VERDE 2.0 solution is also available directly from Virtual Bridges and its partners. VERDE pricing is $50 per seat for 1000 seats or more.

IBM Releases Virtual Desktop To Rival VMware View

December 4, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

IBM is working with Virtual Bridges and its VERDE (Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment) product to ship a virtual Canonical Ubuntu Linux desktop, with Lotus email, word processing, spreadsheets, unified communication, and social networking software included, to a variety of end-point devices. Virtual printing is also included. Wall Street Journal calls it a ‘Microsoft-free’ desktop.

This comes off the heels of VMware’s release of View 3.

None of the pieces of the IBM bundle, available immediately, are new, but the bundled solution makes it easier and cheaper for companies to deploy a complete VDI solution on Linux, IBM maintains. IBM’s OCCS includes Lotus Symphony, its implementation of the ODF-based OpenOffice, as well as Lotus Notes and other applications.

Virtual Bridges’ Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment runs about $49 per seat, while Canonical is about $50 per seat. IBM Lotus Symphony is free but the Notes and other applications are priced separately.

Virtual Bridges Adds VERDE To Win4VDI Product Family

November 4, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Virtual Bridges, a provider of desktop and enterprise virtualization solutions for education and business, announced today the release of a new product in its Win4VDI family. Virtual Bridges’ VERDE (Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment) is a platform for consolidating Linux desktops on x86-based Linux and Solaris servers.

VERDE uses ordinary thin clients for end-points. Organizations benefit from reduced energy consumption, fewer points of failure, and increased security when compared to traditional desktop environments. The VERDE stack further facilitates desktop management through the use of powerful virtual machine technology.

Through Virtual Bridges’ work on virtual desktop computing with hundreds of thousands of users, the company has crafted a product that delivers all of the core features a typical organization would require to accomplish their IT goals. Features like automatic local printing, one-click Windows installation, the ability to integrate with Active Directory, availability of web display or third-party display options, use of write-protected Windows system images for true malware resistance, and integration of RDP support, are just some of the features that combine to put Win4VDI in the lead of the desktop virtualization and consolidation market.

Win4VDI, Virtual Bridges’ Educational/SMB and enterprise product, allows an organization to easily and cost-effectively deliver multiple Windows desktop sessions to PCs, Workstations and thin clients from a non-Windows server such as Linux and Solaris OS.

Maintaining and upgrading desktop computers physically distributed across an organization is a difficult and slow process that is also not effective for users who find themselves with aging computers with degraded performance. VERDE offers IT organizations the ability to easily deploy “desktop as a service” across the organization for both fixed-function as well as custom desktop users, all from a central location, reducing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of desktop computing.

VERDE allows organizations to standardize the application environment to users regardless of desktop hardware and operating system – Windows, UNIX, Linux or Mac can be used on the client, but a common application profile can be created and served from VERDE server configurations such as blade servers, rack arrays or large multi-way machines.

The VERDE product is available immediately.