Cisco doubles down on edge devices with VDI + collab
Bolstered with a dedicated Internet of Things divison, Cisco is extending its reach into the connected universe through new solutions for accessing and managing files across multiple devices. The networking giant on Tuesday pulled the curtains back on a desktop-as-a-service product designed to help cloud providers differentiate in the cutthroat SaaS market.
Based on Cisco’s Desktop Virtualization Solution, the offering comes with a full management stack complete with licenses and a set of provisioning capabilities. It’s available as a subscription service or as a converged on-premise solution that can manage up to 252 virtual desktops per blade and supports graphically intensive workloads.
Satinder Sethi, the vice president of engineering at Cisco, said in a statement that “many organizations are looking for ways to achieve the benefits of desktop virtualization without the need to install and maintain equipment or make capital investments. Not only is Desktop as a Service a great solution for a growing number of companies, but Cisco’s offering is uniquely architected to help cloud service providers achieve rapid time-to-market while economically scaling their business.”
Customers have the choice of deploying the platform with software from either Citrix or VMware Desktone. Both vendors – as well as Cisco’s prospective VDI customers – are facing increased competition from Amazon, which forayed into the virtual desktop market last month with WorkSpaces. The highly scalable service features pre-installed apps and an array of features like persistent sessions and Active Directory integration.
Undeterred, Cisco is venturing deeper into the public cloud. The company is also aiming for a mobile presence with the newly announced acquisition of Collaborate.com, a mobile startup that develops productivity apps for the enterprise. No financial details were disclosed, but Cisco business development head Hilton Romanski said in a blog that the firm’s technology will be incorporated into a unified collaboration platform.
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