At last weeks’ DataCore Software Northern Europe Conference entitled ‘Optimising your Virtual Environment,’ DataCore Software, the premier provider of storage virtualisation software, along with DataCore solution providers and alliance partners, celebrated its 15th year anniversary and introduced to a packed auditorium, the new DataCore VDS (Virtual Desktop Server) software platform to Northern European customers in search of simple, affordable VDI solutions for small to mid-size businesses.
DataCore Introduces a New Software Product line: DataCore VDS – The Virtual Desktop ServerThe announcement encouraged immediate positive uptake from the 100+ attendees keen to find out more about the potential impact of the announcement to their portfolio and environment.
One of the top DataCore R&D Directors took delegates through how DataCore VDS is designed to cost-effectively deploy and serve virtual desktops. DataCore VDS is a VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) application-specific use case that optimally applies DataCore’s architectural advantages to make it practical to deploy persistent ‘stateful’ virtual desktops at a lower cost and higher performance than alternatives.
DataCore VDS: A Powerful ‘Stateful’ Virtual Desktop Solution
True virtual desktops are ‘stateful’ (or persistent), they deliver a similar user experience as if a user is on a physical desktop or laptop PC. With ‘stateful’ virtual desktops, an end-user is assigned a virtual machine for their own use to run applications, to browse, to do downloads. Turn the virtual desktop off and then back on and it retains the ‘State’ of what you were doing, it is just like when you close and open a laptop.
True virtual desktops are ‘stateful’ (or persistent), they deliver a similar user experience as if a user is on a physical desktop or laptop PC. With ‘stateful’ virtual desktops, an end-user is assigned a virtual machine for their own use to run applications, to browse, to do downloads. Turn the virtual desktop off and then back on and it retains the ‘State’ of what you were doing, it is just like when you close and open a laptop.
DataCore VDS addresses unfulfilled SMB market demand for cost-effective solutions
Small and medium businesses want to adopt desktop virtualisation for the same reasons large enterprises do – to reduce desktop management costs, improve productivity and increase business agility, but they often find enterprise-class solutions overkill for smaller environments.
Small and medium businesses want to adopt desktop virtualisation for the same reasons large enterprises do – to reduce desktop management costs, improve productivity and increase business agility, but they often find enterprise-class solutions overkill for smaller environments.
Unlike VDI offerings aimed at ‘Big Companies’ on the market which are complex and require many 1000’s of desktops to justify the high costs involved, DataCore VDS dramatically lowers the complexity and significantly reduces the cost per VDI instance. The solution is priced and sized for small, medium size businesses and departmental users. DataCore VDS addresses this unfulfilled market demand with cost-effective and simple to use solutions specifically designed to meet the budgets and needs of 50 to 200 virtual desktop deployments. Most importantly, DataCore VDS makes it economically possible to not sacrifice performance and have a ‘true’ desktop user experience.
The Ultimate Objective: A Great User Experience
Other VDI approaches tend to be complex, costly and inefficient. Also, they are difficult to install and manage. While the ultimate objective is to provide users with a virtual desktop that performs and works as well or better than a physical computer, this objective is the first to be sacrificed due to the high costs needed to achieve the ‘true’ desktop experience and responsiveness that end-users expect. Storage has been the major barrier and cost factor; current VDI approaches have had to use expensive storage networks, enterprise storage arrays, fast disks, SSDs and shared storage to achieve needed performance. However the economics do not make sense. The cost of storage has limited VDI deployments only to large companies with big budgets. All the above arguments together dictate the need for a new approach to address the storage cost and performance challenges.
Other VDI approaches tend to be complex, costly and inefficient. Also, they are difficult to install and manage. While the ultimate objective is to provide users with a virtual desktop that performs and works as well or better than a physical computer, this objective is the first to be sacrificed due to the high costs needed to achieve the ‘true’ desktop experience and responsiveness that end-users expect. Storage has been the major barrier and cost factor; current VDI approaches have had to use expensive storage networks, enterprise storage arrays, fast disks, SSDs and shared storage to achieve needed performance. However the economics do not make sense. The cost of storage has limited VDI deployments only to large companies with big budgets. All the above arguments together dictate the need for a new approach to address the storage cost and performance challenges.
DataCore VDS Compelling Benefits
DataCore VDS is the easy and affordable virtual desktop solution designed for SMBs. It deploys on a single server, and includes the tools Windows® administrators need to rapidly deliver centrally-managed virtual desktops to any user for less than the cost of new PCs.
DataCore VDS is the easy and affordable virtual desktop solution designed for SMBs. It deploys on a single server, and includes the tools Windows® administrators need to rapidly deliver centrally-managed virtual desktops to any user for less than the cost of new PCs.
The DataCore VDS highly efficient architecture eliminates up to 75 percent of VDI costs without compromising performance and most importantly the user experience. DataCore VDS is:
Simple and Fast to Install, Adminis
ter and Use
ter and Use
- Runs on off-the-shelf servers; any storage
- Intuitive and easy for administrators to use
Affordable and Super Storage Efficient
- Uses a fraction of storage compared to other VDI architectures
A High Performance Optimized Architecture
- Delivers ‘Best in Class’ price performance
- Optimally manages I/O traffic and caches to achieve high performance
A Powerful ‘Stateful’ Virtual Desktop Computing Solution
- True Desktop computing. What users expect!
DataCore is focused on solving storage problems and VDI is storage challenged
“We are not moving away from our core business, we are doing what we do best. DataCore VDS is fundamentally a storage solution that leverages Microsoft virtualisation capabilities and DataCore’s powerful architectural advantages to makes VDI practical and affordable,” states George Teixeira, CEO and President, DataCore Software.
“We are not moving away from our core business, we are doing what we do best. DataCore VDS is fundamentally a storage solution that leverages Microsoft virtualisation capabilities and DataCore’s powerful architectural advantages to makes VDI practical and affordable,” states George Teixeira, CEO and President, DataCore Software.
Product Pricing, Roll Out and Availability
DataCore VDS will be released this month in Germany & UK where select partners have already been trained. In Q2, the solution will be made available exclusively in Europe through DataCore’s established network of trained and authorized EMEA based solution providers.
DataCore VDS will be released this month in Germany & UK where select partners have already been trained. In Q2, the solution will be made available exclusively in Europe through DataCore’s established network of trained and authorized EMEA based solution providers.
Pricing starts at under EURO 4.600 for a DataCore VDS software license able to support 50 virtual desktops.
Also announced at the conference, Simon Birbeck, Waterstons, is awarded DataCore Master Certified Engineer status elevating him to the ranks of elite engineers for the most complex environments.
