Igel offers virtual desktop 'appliances'

Virtualisation can centralise user desktop provisioning into server-hosted virtual machines in a data centre

Igel Technology has updated its thin clients to work better within a virtual desktop environment.

The firm announced at the VMware Virtualisation Forum that it is adding support to make its devices more appliance-like when used within a VMware infrastructure.

Igel has also added the ability for multimedia content to be handled locally by the thin client while integrating seamlessly with a virtual desktop session.

Desktop virtualisation offers large organisations the ability to centralise user desktop provisioning into server-hosted virtual machines in a data centre.

This holds the promise of greater security and easier management, while still giving users the benefits of a Windows PC.

Available from October, a new VMware VDM Appliance Mode in Igel's Universal Desktop range of thin clients turns them into a virtual PC access appliance, making connecting to a virtual desktop as simple as plugging into the network and logging into Windows.

In this mode, users see only the virtual PC desktop, and keystrokes such as ctrl-alt-del apply to the virtual PC instead of the local environment.

"Deploying a VDM Appliance will be no more difficult than plugging in a telephone," said Stephen Yeo, worldwide marketing director at Igel.

With Igel's management tools, VDM mode can be specified in profiles that are applied to Universal Desktop devices when they connect to the network, Yeo added.

Meanwhile, the company has added what it calls Digital Services Virtualisation, which enables facilities embedded into the thin client - such as a Flash media player - to be "reverse-published" so they are available to the virtual PC.

This is designed to address a traditional weakness of using a remote desktop session, in that it often delivers a poor multimedia experience compared with using a real PC.

Some thin client vendors such as Wyse have addressed this by using multimedia redirection and bypassing the remote desktop protocol, but Yeo claimed that this approach is unsatisfactory.

"We viewed that as a band-aid. It can't handle certain file types, can't handle Flash animations, or things like VoIP where there is no file type, just a data stream," he said.

Igel's approach is to use applications on its Universal Desktop device such as the web browser, but make it appear that the application is running inside the virtual PC session.

It is able to deliver this by embedding a client for RES PowerFuse Workspace Extender into its devices, which intercepts calls to these applications on the virtual PC and redirects them to the thin client. This happens seamlessly as far as the end user is concerned.

"'If I want to do videoconferencing, I can now use virtual PCs with Igel Universal Desktops and get a fantastic experience, but still have the desktops centralised," Yeo said.

Administrators can configure which applications are "reverse published" this way, which potentially enables firms to apply it to any software that can be embedded in a thin client.

The solution requires RES to be running on the virtual PC, but Igel customers can license this for a special rate of £50 per concurrent user, according to Yeo.

Igel has also updated its Remote Management Suite tool to version 3, revamping the user interface so that administrators can apply most settings with just a few mouse clicks rather than scripts.