ClearCube Technology, the market leader in centralized computing solutions, today announced ClearCube Sentral™ version 5.5, part of the industry's only solution that manages virtualized PC desktops and dynamically delivers the required level of PC resources to end users. Building on the industry's first connection broker technology, Sentral v5.5 manages mixed physical PC blades with VMware-enabled virtual machines to seamlessly incorporate virtualization technology into centralized desktop computing without sacrificing end-user performance. This flexible management software enables organizations to maximize the value of their investment in virtualization by providing corporate users with the exact computing power needed to effectively conduct their jobs.

"When considering the adoption of client-side virtualization, organizations need to consider the extent to which the chosen technology will impact the end user experience. ClearCube has designed a PC blade solution that is focused on delivering the performance of dedicated, physical PC blades, while leveraging the benefits in efficiency provided by virtualization software." says Michael Rose, associate research analyst, Enterprise Virtualization Software, IDC.

ClearCube customers understand that employees generally use only a small portion of their desktop machines' available CPU capacity, which generates a strong case for creating a virtual desktop environment. According to IDC, more than three-quarters of companies with five hundred or more employees use virtual servers, and 45 percent of all new servers purchased in 2006 were virtualized. ClearCube believes that server virtualization is just the first step in employing virtualization to efficiently utilize corporate IT assets. By combining VMware ESX3 Server with ClearCube PC blades and ClearCube Sentral v5.5 management software, organizations can deploy virtual desktops across the enterprise from centralized virtual machines located in the data center to more efficiently employ their IT assets.

ClearCube Sentral v5.5 provides the key component of a truly effective desktop virtualization solution, delivering the full PC experience to multiple end users sharing the resources of individual PC blades. It provides a single management platform for monitoring, controlling and connecting multiple end-user desktop clients to centralized PC resources in the data center, assigning users as appropriate among physical PC blades and virtual machines.

With its virtual abstraction layer, ClearCube Sentral v5.5 is able to support multiple virtual machine types. Sentral v5.5 now includes direct interaction with VMware's ESX3 APIs to control-power on, power off, hibernate, pause and cold start-virtual machines from a single networked location. Sentral v5.5 identifies virtual machines without the need for an agent in the VMware ESX3 host operating system, and allows customers to create true virtual desktop solutions, managing both physical and virtual machines together to always ensure sufficient end-user computing power availability. Sentral v5.5 also supports distributed PC blades and virtual machines at multiple locations while still managing from a single console to reduce IT management costs.

"When adopting virtualization technology, organizations want to effectively utilize all their enterprise computing assets," said Bruce Cohen, president and CEO, ClearCube. "With the release of Sentral v5.5, ClearCube is incorporating virtual desktop management alongside VMware's enterprise virtualization capabilities to deliver a comprehensive solution that ensures end users always have the computing power required to conduct their jobs. ClearCube's approach to virtualization extracts maximum value from desktop IT investments, while enabling customers to capitalize on ClearCube's proven centralized computing security advantages."

Features and Benefits
ClearCube Sentral is the industry's first software platform to offer connection broker technology for efficiently managing centralized physical and virtual computing resources from a single console. Sentral v5.5 adds a number of new features designed to enhance the end-user computing experience and reduce IT management costs, including:

• Virtualization Support–In addition to support for VMware ESX3 Server and VMware Server, Sentral v5.5's virtual abstraction layer can scale for future virtualization deployments with other technologies such as those provided by Microsoft and XenSource.
• Microsoft Vista Support–Sentral v5.5 offers support for Microsoft Vista, enabling organizations to manage virtual and physical machines using the new operating system.
• Expanded Internationalization Support–Sentral v5.5 features support for more languages, including Spanish, Japanese, German and French.
• Scalability–Sentral v5.5 is a true enterprise software product, offering support for active directory environments encompassing multiple tens of thousands of users and for very large mixed physical and virtual installations (thousands of machines and virtual machines).
• User-friendly Features–Sentral v5.5 incorporates a number of new tools to make the management console easier to use, including setup and configuration wizards, a more intuitive set of workflows for common management tasks and integration of previously separate test utilities into a comprehensive console diagnostic function.

 

ClearCube has started a Sentral v5.5 discussion topic at PCBladeComputing.com, a blog published by the company. To read more, visit: www.pcbladecomputing.com.

Pricing and Availability
ClearCube Sentral v5.5 will be available in May 2007. Pricing is based on a per user and per virtual machine basis. Contact ClearCube or one of its channel partners for specific pricing information.