Teradici recently released firmware version 4.0.0 that has some exciting new features.  One of the updates is a result of working with Imprivata to enable Impriviata OneSign access to Zero Clients.  ZeroClients offer several advantages over thick pc’s or even thin clients such as, ease of configuration and roll outs along with greatly reduced virus / malware foot prints.  However, many customers that use Imprivata OneSign access with card or bio readers have not been able to utilize those devices.

The recent firmware release will give Imprivata customers or customers looking towards OneSign many more options when choose devices for either VDI or share application terminals.

The link below describes some of the other upgrades and features released in this firmware version.
http://www.teradici.com/pcoip/news-and-events/press-releases/2012-06-12.php

A health insurance provider in Tennessee was recently fined $1.5 million by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services for a violation that occurred in October of 2009.  The violation, a loss of protected health information, occurred when 57 computer hard drives were taken from a training facility while employees were preparing to relocate.  The PHI data on the hard drives was also unencrypted.  The company also provided free credit reporting to nearly all of its 3.1 million customers since it could not determine the actual number of affected customers.

We all know the complexities and costs of managing large geographically separated fleets of desktops.  Just maintaining hardware, OS patches and AV software updates tend to consume all of the small amount of resources that most small to mid-size companies have in their IT budget.  And that doesn’t even start to add the complexities of encrypting data at rest on those fleets of pc’s.

An often talked about benefit of Virtual Desktops is data security.  However, I’m not sure that discussion sinks in deeply since we’re all worried about how much RAM we might need and how many IOPS we have to plan for in order to avoid the dreaded boot storm.  But, this benefit is real and in this case all the thieves would have walked away with COULD have been some dumb thin clients.  In the VDI world the PHI that was stored on these disks would have never left the data center and had any of the trainees or trainers stored PHI data on their desktops, the data would still have remained in the data center.

I realize there are long lists of pro’s and con’s along with ROI and TCO models that companies must go through prior to choosing or not choosing VDI but, these 1.5 million reasons go a long way to proving that VDI can provide many more benefits to businesses than just easier patch or software deployment tasks.

Happy Pi Day readers!  It’s day 011 of FLISH MADNESS and we are continuing our conversation on End User Computing.

To review, we discussed yesterday that three things are needed for EUC to be successfully deployed in a corporate IT environment.

1.  Device agnosticism aka BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).

2.  Application abstraction / Modern Application development (HTML 5)

3.  Secure MDM (Mobile Device Management)

We went in depth about topic number one yesterday.

Today we will discuss topic number 2:

Application abstraction / Modern Application development

Read more >>

Citrix has an all-in-one VDI solution for small and medium business called VDI-in-a-Box, which allows organizations go from “No VDI” to “In Production VDI” in a couple of hours – that scales on demand.

Citrix states that VDI-in-a-Box delivers immediate ROI and reduces VDI infrastructure costs by 60%, and if you are facing desktop refresh like a number of organizations, then you really should consider your all virtual options.

 VDI-in-a-Box, allows companies to:

• Reduce downtime with high availability that’s built-in to the solution
• Reduce and eliminate complexities with an all-in-one software solution
• Provide uses anywhere-access via the Citrix Receiver
• Dramatically cut infrastructure costs by running VDI via off-the-shelf servers
• Deploy virtual desktops for less $$$ than new PCs

Organizations can look for 3 key benefits (1) Accelerates the adoption of VDI, (2) Satisfies the demands from end users for HD, personalized desktop experience, and (3) Simplifies the process (setup, deployment, & management).

For more information, I encourage you to check out an On Demand Citrix Webcast or by going HERE.

OfficeScan now uses up to 60% fewer resources than leading competitors, freeing up critical resources for your applications, delivering stronger performance and more efficient endpoint protection. Trend’s latest offering in the OfficeScan suite is version 10.6 and it running ligther and protecting more than ever.

Most notable is the new Data Loss Prevention (DLP) plug-in for real time inspection to further reduce security risks. DLP is designed to improve visibility of data usage of risky business processes. Data is monitored and fully protected.

Also VDI Optimization is built in to OfficeScan 10.6.

Leaner Performance Cuts Cost

• Delivers annual savings of over $100 per user – proven by independent tests
• Extends PC lifecycle to lower hardware replacement costs
• Reduces costs associated with cleaning infected PCs

Protects Better

• Protects 55% better than Symantec and McAfee
• Delivers the strongest endpoint protection – proven in real world tests
• Prevents damage from infection, identity theft and more

Learn more about how Trend Micro’s OfficeScan can help you protect your devices:

Trend Micro 10.6