TechAgility

Now this is very interesting news because with all the interest around VDI there is still no real alternative to ICA other than RDP (or VNC…?) and in this I’m not even going to consider Ncomputing’s WoIP, as from a techies point of view this would appear to simply be a rehash of RDP, although I’m prepared to be convinced otherwise?

But it might be exciting to see that there is a real possible alternative to the ICA/RDP stranglehold and this might have the makings of some interesting changes to how things might be approached in the VDI space?

******UPDATE******
As a consequence of this post I have been contacted by Ncomputing and it would appear that their WoIP is actually what they term a combination of UTMA and UXP and does indeed make the connection/transition/session at a lower level in the stack. However, you will not find much detail on the inner workings of this as it’s proprietary, and I’m still trying to understand how this all plays out with regards to the Microsoft Licensing side of things as detailed here in a post on their Forum
http://ncomputing.com/ncomputing/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=963&hilightuser=1087If/when I find out more I’ll update either here, or as a separate post on my new blog at www.techagility.info
******UPDATE******

Qumranet leaves stealth mode and enters VDI market with Solid ICE

By Alessandro Perilli

After almost two years in stealth mode, one of the most interesting virtualization startup at the moment, Qumranet, launches its first product: a VDI solution called Solid ICE.

Solid ICE is made of a connection broker, but also features a server component which adds resources control capabilities to KVM, and a new remote access protocol, called SPICE, which can be optionally used as replacement for Microsoft RDP.

The connection broker has some interesting capabilities in itself, supporting high availability and exposing a web portal for standard PC clients access which is designed to scale up to thousands of virtual machines. Despite that first version will provide basic capabilities to operate the virtual machine, with enhancements to be released over time.

The new protocol adds further value to Qumranet solution, being designed to deliver on thin clients all those multimedia protocols which usually don’t perform well into a terminal services session (an approach which competes with NEC VPCC one).

Last but not least Qumranet took care to support several thin clients on the market, developing a dedicated MiniOS (probably a special purpose Linux distribution).

Solid ICE will support Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP and Linux as guest OSes, and it’s expected to be available before the end of this year.

more at source…

remote support

written by dcaddick

Even though we might work in IT we cannot neglect the business, after all it’s the business requirements that we strive to fulfill (isn’t it?

I strongly believe we need to be mindful of what’s going on in the wider world from a Financial context so that we can understand (sometimes even before the business does?) why projects need to be revised or canceled?

The reality is that many other countries around the world have traditionally used the USD as a basis for their own currency, but with things shaping up the way they are the Fed’s changes are not relevant to other global and local economies and so as a matter of course they will start considering to break these traditional links and this may have further consequences on the perceived value and strength of the USD

Exciting times indeed?

Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright

From the Telegraph.co.uk

Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signaling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.

more at source…

written by dcaddick