Leostream Corporation, a leading developer of virtual hosted desktop software, announced today that I.R.I.S. (EURONEXT Brussels: IRI) has selected the Leostream Connection Broker for a virtual desktop solution to support a massive scanning and archiving project by Service Public Federal Finances (SPF Finances), the Belgian Public Federal Finance Administration. I.R.I.S. is a market leader in intelligent document management and optical character recognition.

The Leostream Connection Broker will manage the connections between more than 100 end-users and their virtualized desktops. Tied into SPF Finance's common scanning and archiving platform, the solution will bring greater cost-efficiency and facilitate end-user work on a Corporate Scanning System (CSS) for electronic processing of all tax forms submitted by individuals to the Belgian Government. This project supports the scanning, archiving, and validation of more than 10 million documents through a system of virtual desktops brokered by Leostream technology.

I.R.I.S. is using this innovative approach to workstations to transfer the complexity of managing end-user systems to the data center. As a direct result of this, they will provide SPF Finances with a reduction in total cost of ownership for their global IT infrastructure, consolidation of resources in the central IT department due to more efficient management, and better control and support for applications.

"With the IRIS Virtual Desktop solution we can remove PCs from the Corporate Scanning System, enabling SPF Finances to reduce energy, space and other costs," said Gamal Khaldi, Director and General Manager of I.R.I.S. ICT. "We use the Leostream Connection Broker because it is essential for creating the kind of dependable, large-scale desktop virtualization infrastructure that SPF Finances can depend upon. It's vendor-independent, supports all leading virtualization vendors, and integrates well with security and IT infrastructure. Customers get the most from existing infrastructure and can plan for future expansion without the worry of vendor lock-in. Equally important, it delivers an immediately familiar end-user experience, while implementing policies that adhere strictly to customer requirements."

I.R.I.S. ICT, a subsidiary of I.R.I.S., developed the IRIS Virtual Desktop as a complete, end-to-end solution that is both flexible and robust. The solution offers advanced features including support for up to 16 monitors attached to a single virtual machine, the ability to use any USB device with an IRIS client, desktop OS de-duplication, and support for QoS on their clients.

I.R.I.S. ICT selected the Leostream Connection Broker for its true vendor-independence and ability to broker whatever is found in the data center, including: 3270 Mainframe Time Sharing sessions, 5250 iSeries sessions, Terminal Server sessions, Blade PC sessions, VMware machines, Citrix machines, Linux and Windows. I.R.I.S. ICT also chose the Leostream Connection Broker for its flexibility and interoperability. For example, the technology can integrate multiple types of authentication servers (Active Directory, eDirectory, or OpenLDAP) and can make the use of Active Directory "optional" for situations where end-users do not have an AD account but still need to access virtual desktops.

According to recent data from researchers at Gartner Group, the number of virtualized PCs is expected to grow from less than 5 million in 2007 to 660 million by 2011. Leostream offers the industry's only vendor-independent connection broker, enabling enterprises to maximize the virtualization of existing resources by integrating an array of clients, back-end systems and viewers. It integrates existing authentication and security protocols necessary without changes and provides a rich set of policies for exact implementation of business rules for users and machines. The Connection Broker has been deployed by hundreds of large enterprises in financial services, healthcare, government and other sectors.

"I.R.I.S. is truly at the forefront when it comes to optimizing IT infrastructure to create more efficient businesses," said Michael Palin, CEO of Leostream. "We are pleased that they have again selected the Connection Broker to ensure a successful VDI deployment, particularly for a project supporting something as mission-critical and extensive as the Belgian Government's tax initiative."

Leostream will be exhibiting at VMworld Europe 2009 and invites attendees to visit booth #85 for further information.