Virtual Bridges

Virtual Bridges Inc. announced Wednesday update to its VERDE virtual desktop management solution that accelerates the provisioning of VDI infrastructure and delivers high quality LAN experience for Windows and Linux virtual desktops, while enabling them to be managed from the cloud.

With VERDE’s new Active Cloud Branch capabilities, more processing power is pushed out to remote locations while management of the branch server remains in the data center. This gives administrators and managed service providers continuous visibility into branch usage from a central location, while preserving the end user experience on the local network.

According to Gartner, “Many large-enterprise organizations have stated they prefer that any deployed virtual desktop appliance solution be centrally managed alongside the rest of the SHVD (server hosted virtual desktop infrastructure).”

For example, a large government organization uses VERDE Active Cloud Branch to deploy and configure desktops in Hawaii according to local state security policies and administrative requirements, while managing them from a data center on the United States mainland. This approach ensures a consistent, high-quality LAN experience for the branch end user while maintaining security, isolation and business resiliency.

“Virtual Bridges' technology addresses all of the key challenges we’ve faced with other desktop virtualization solutions while reducing overall costs and management complexity,” said Ed Anderson, chief strategy officer, CompuCom. “With advanced support for cloud branches, VERDE provides our customers flexible, scalable and high-performing access to desktops, regardless of location.”

In addition to Active Cloud Branch, VERDE now includes bare-metal install and support for pooled users. The VERDE bare-metal install requires no pre-existing OS, allowing users to provision a Windows or Linux virtual desktop in about 30 minutes, including automated configuration of all internal storage applications and peripherals. The VERDE support for pooled desktops extends the company’s position in use case coverage to scenarios such as shared desktops in hotel business centers, libraries, etc. The VERDE support for CIFS storage and NFS v4 expands the variety of storage models, enabling customers to drive down storage costs.

“From SaaS to cloud computing to BYOD, the desktop has changed but management approaches haven’t kept up. While early VDI solutions were complex and costly, Virtual Bridges provides an elegant, lightweight approach that allows organizations to keep pace with today’s changing desktop environment,” said Jim Curtin, CEO of Virtual Bridges. “This release addresses the biggest challenges that organizations face, including support for branch users, ease of install and managing licenses. With these new features, VERDE delivers the best value in the industry, at half the cost.”

VERDE’s feature set includes online, offline and branch VDI, Gold Master provisioning, Storage Optimizer, a Distributed Connection brokering architecture, flexibility to run both Windows and Linux desktops, branch-level VDI at LAN speeds, support for on-premises and hosted deployment, and desktop portability on a USB stick.