Posted by Nicole Reineke on Thu, Apr 29, 2010 @ 02:20 PM
OK, so the plot isn’t top secret, but if I told you who… well, it wouldn’t be good for either of us.
So what does a top-secret agency talk about when implementing VDI? Interestingly enough, they talk about some of the same things I hear from Universities, Financial Institutions, and BioTech: They talk about image management, storage, security, and personalization.
For this particular location, their largest pain point is managing their Windows 7 images. Each of their users require a full, personalized desktop that they can not adequately provide with the profile scraping technologies (apparently national security personnel need to install their own applications), so they have hundreds of full, persistent desktops. Not surprisingly, they must put in place all software security updates on-the-double, resulting in frequent OS and application patches. Their previous virtual desktop update mechanism was as flawed as traditional desktop upgrades, resulting in far too many helpdesk calls.
When we discussed the reasons behind their choice to be a Unidesk beta site, they said:
“I need [updates] to get deployed faster. If you can save me storage on just the Window7 operating system, I want to move forward.”
Well, rest assured, we are giving them far more than that.
Unidesk’s Composite Virtualization Technology delivers images, applications and patches to end users without failure, and without compromising end user productivity or personalization. While dramatically reducing storage.
It never occurred to me that building a great management platform for virtual desktops that helps the US government reduce costs might also help me reduce my yearly federal tax bill … a win-win all around. ;-)
Nicole Reineke, Director of Product Management
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@NicoleReineke
Posted by Nicole Reineke on Sun, Apr 11, 2010 @ 07:35 AM
I had the pleasure of spending the morning with one of our Beta testers at a privately held Financial Services company. It was an exceptional visit where I was able to witness a fantastic company culture - they are service driven from bottom to top, and it is evident the moment you enter the building. This company has fully committed to provide their end users exactly what they want and what they need. Without exception. They actually said this and meant it in a wonderful way:
“We don’t say no. Ever.”
As you may guess based on their philosophy of extreme customer satisfaction, this company is providing each employee with their own full desktop, all with administrative privileges, and their helpdesk costs are likely a good reflection of this choice.
What is the motivation for this company to move to virtual desktops? Hardware refresh. They need to replace their desktops, upgrade to Windows 7, and, while they don’t like the idea of changing the user experience, they like the idea of buying new PC and laptop hardware less.
They came to Unidesk because they needed:
- Full, fat desktop experience for each end user
- A way for their existing helpdesk personnel to manage, repair, and distribute new applications to these desktops without extreme re-training, and without "arresting the desktops"
- To do this without requiring a significant storage investment.
Their Desktop Virtualization Project Lead described their Unidesk product experience to us:
'The [Unidesk] technology is different in an important way. It is miles beyond anything else in getting apps to users. It accomplishes the disk savings that linked clones can give you, and gives the end users the thick desktop experience. Without Unidesk, you would have to thick clone 100 VMs - that would be ridiculous. 5 TB of SATA is ridiculous.'
And, with us, their helpdesk can repair desktops in a single click.
Thank you to my hosts for the amazing visit. What an inspiring culture, one that I hope I will run across again and again as we meet more IT departments looking to create virtual desktops that end users love, with management and storage that IT loves!
We're now opening our Beta program to more participants. You want in? Click Here.
- Nicole Reineke, Director of Product Management
@NicoleReineke
Posted by Tom Rose on Thu, Apr 08, 2010 @ 10:34 AM
We first met Brian Madden early last year during one of his visits to Boston. We promised him we'd give him the full details on our virtual desktop layering technology when we were ready to come out of stealth. That opportunity came last week while we were in San Francisco for our first public appearance at the SearchVirtualDesktop Desktop Virtualization 2010 road show event, which Unidesk sponsored.
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Unidesk Founder and CTO Chris Midgley and Chief Solution Architect Ron Oglesby met up with Brian at his office the day before the event. Brian recorded Ron giving a live demo of Unidesk provisioning VDI desktops, sustaining user-installed applications through a major upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP, and delivering hard-to-virtualize applications including antivirus as independently packaged layers. Then, Brian recorded his sit-down interview with Chris in which Chris explained his "founding moment" for Unidesk and his vision for how Unidesk will change the desktop management landscape. Gabe Knuth posted both videos on brianmadden.com earlier this week.
Stay tuned for more Unidesk news in the coming weeks as we get closer to first customer ship!
-Tom Rose
Unidesk Chief Marketing Officer
Posted by Tom Rose on Fri, Apr 02, 2010 @ 02:14 PM
Our new web site went live this week with complete information about Unidesk® virtual desktop management software! It's no longer a secret how our desktop layering technology reduces VDI storage costs, delivers a fully personal user experience (including support for user-installed applications), and simplifies provisioning, patching, and application delivery - all with one solution.
Check out the videos, screen shots, and analyst reports. Sign up for one of our weekly demo webinars. Locate a Unidesk Solution or Consulting Partner. Or, find upcoming events featuring Unidesk so you can meet us in person.
Speaking of events, this week also marked our first public appearance. We were a sponsor of the SearchVirtualDesktop "Desktop Virtualization - What It Means in 2010" road show event in San Francisco, where Brian Madden was keynote speaker.
Here, Unidesk Chief Solution Architect Ron Oglesby gives the entire audience a quick introduction to our desktop layering technology.
During session breaks, our table was jam packed with people waiting in line to catch a glimpse of our demo. That's Unidesk in the back corner with the easel sign and the big crowd in front.
We're excited to reach the point where we can talk freely about our technology and product plans. Stay tuned for more details as we approach Unidesk product availability, or register for Beta to get a head start on evaluating Unidesk in your VMware View, Citrix XenDesktop, or other VDI environment.
-Tom Rose
Unidesk Chief Marketing Officer