VDIworks races toward disconnected VDI model

Austin-based VDIworks, a virtual desktop provider that was spun off from ClearCube back in May of this year, announced an add-on to its connection broker so that VDI users can leverage a virtual desktop even when disconnected from the corporate network.

One of the big drawbacks to the standard VDI architecture has been the lack of support for a disconnected mobile user. As virtual desktop solutions continue to be evaluated by companies, connectivity remains one of those hurdles that need to be solved in order to foster wider implementations of the technology. And vendors understand this pain point.

VDIworks introduced VDIworks2Go, a software solution giving workers access to a centralized virtual desktop from their laptop, and allowing them to take it along, while still affording the benefit of security, total cost of ownership, and management advantages presented by a centralized desktop computing infrastructure.

“VDIworks2Go eliminates challenges inherent in other virtual desktop approaches and caters to the mobile user. With ‘hosted VDI,’ the moment the network connection is lost the user’s ability to work is interrupted. With ‘endpoint virtualization,’ a virtual machine always runs on the user’s device even when far more powerful datacenter resources could be used. VDIworks2Go provides the benefits of centralized virtual desktops while still allowing end users to disconnect from that infrastructure,” said Amir Husain, president and CEO of VDIworks.

Expected before the end of the year, VDIworks2Go will allow the mobile user to check out a hosted virtual desktop, disconnect from the network, and then run a local copy on their machine using a client-side virtualization platform such as the free VMware Player. Once the user gets back to the corporate network, the virtual desktop is checked back in and any changes get synchronized back to the server.

VDIworks2Go can also ease the transition to virtual desktops by using existing PCs. In order to use VDIworks2Go, these existing machines must operate a processor with 1.6GHz or higher of processing power and contain 2GB or more of RAM, and they should hold 6GB to 8GB of free storage to host a typical VM.

VDIworks isn’t alone in this market. VMware also understands the importance of the disconnected client. The company announced its own vClient solution during VMworld 2008, and then formally announced this feature in the upcoming VMware View product.