Provision Networks, a division of Quest Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: QSFT), today unveiled its Experience Optimization Pack (EOP). Quest EOP is an extension suite for Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) aimed to eliminate the adoption barriers of hosted desktop virtualization in all use case scenarios over both local area and wide area networks.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) promises to change the way organizations deliver applications and deploy desktops. It promises to change the way users will compute, ensuring higher levels of productivity, desktop and application availability, and higher levels of security, while lowering the cost and complexity of managing the desktop infrastructure. Technical challenges centered around the end-user experience have, however, so far impeded the broad adoption of desktop virtualization.

Introducing Quest Experience Optimization Pack

Hosted desktop technologies such as VDI, Blade PCs or even presentation virtualization rely on RDP to provide access and connectivity. RDP, however, does not deliver a PC-like, or even a near PC-like, experience. Quest’s EOP embraces and extends RDP and delivers the optimal user experience for LAN and WAN connectivity. Quest EOP:

• Delivers support for bi-directional audio, enabling organizations to deploy dictation, collaboration and certain VOIP applications.
• Accelerates the delivery of multimedia content such as recorded webcasts and web-based training from remote virtualized desktops and applications.
• Dramatically improves the remoting of graphics including browser and flash acceleration.
• Eliminates the effects of network latency which can cause havoc even for simple applications such as word processing.

“VDI certainly holds tremendous promise in the way desktop management and deployment is accomplished. However, the user experience will dictate the feasibility of a desktop virtualization project,” said Andi Mann, research director, Enterprise Management Associates. “Quest is on target by choosing to improve this user experience which enables organizations to virtualize more desktop scenarios spanning the enterprise.”

Availability

Quest’s EOP is available immediately as an optional add-on to the Provision Networks Virtual Access Suite v5.10, the most mature enterprise multi-platform desktop virtualization solution. Quest desktop virtualization technologies including Quest EOP will be showcased next week at VMworld 2008 in Las Vegas in booth # 1039.

Major enhancements announced in the 5.10 version include:

• Desktop Lifecycle Management and Automation
• Automated Server Provisioning
• MSI Deployment Manager
• Advanced Power Management for Physical and Virtual PCs
• Real-time Process Enumeration
• USB Redirection Manager
• Quest Experience Optimization Pack

“The last-mile has always been the most difficult obstacle to overcome,” said Paul Ghostine, vice president and general manager of Quest Software’s Provision Networks division. “We have come a long way towards shattering the barriers of mass adoption and extending our leadership in the rapidly emerging desktop virtualization market.”

Partner and Customer Feedback

“The Virtual Access Suite has long offered the most comprehensive feature-set and enterprise scalability in production deployments,” said Aaron Schneider, director of solution engineering at The Pinnacle Group, a leading virtualization consultancy in California. “The new experience optimization technologies offered by Quest will certainly enable organizations to departmental deployments into enterprise-wide deployments.”

“With more than 700 virtualized desktops across eleven locations, adequate performance over wide area network links is crucial to user satisfaction,” said David Herr, CTO and director of TAG Integrated Technologies and a Quest customer. “Supporting the entire application set which makes up our user workspace, including graphics-rich and multimedia content, proved to be impossible without the Quest experience optimized protocol.”

“With a keen focus on desktop virtualization, we have been involved with hundreds of VDI projects and realize that an appropriate user experience is essential to success,” said Cameron Merrett, managing director of TecDem Ltd, a Provision Networks Certified Solutions Advisor in the UK. “Quest EOP delivers an unmatched user experience that’s practically indiscernible from that of a local PC."