Quest Software, Inc. today announced an upcoming maintenance release of Quest vWorkspace that will support the major enhancements in Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, which introduces Microsoft RemoteFX and Microsoft Dynamic Memory. Expanded support for RemoteFX will enrich the user experience in remote locations, while Dynamic Memory accommodates greater workloads, increasing the number of virtual desktops that can be hosted on a Hyper-V server.
“The forthcoming updates for vWorkspace enable our customers to take full advantage of the enhanced user experience and cost savings SP1 brings to the table,” said Jon Rolls, division vice president of product management for Desktop Virtualization, Quest Software. “With the introduction of exciting technologies such as RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory, Microsoft continues to lower deployment costs and improve the user experience in desktop virtualization scenarios. We look forward to continuing to extend and enhance these technologies to deliver even greater benefit to our customers, and to extract the maximum ROI from desktop virtualization.”
RemoteFX
Quest’s patent-pending Experience Optimized Protocol (EOP) Xtream technology was added to the vWorkspace product line last year, and has gained widespread acknowledgement by customers and partners for delivering significant user experience improvements on network connections with latency of 20ms or more. A white paper detailing the enhanced performance is available at http://www.quest.com/landing/?ID=5504.
With the introduction of Microsoft’s latest remote display technology, RemoteFX, in Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Quest’s EOP Xtream technology will also accelerate RemoteFX to enhance the user experience when deployed beyond the Local Area Network (LAN). It will expand the reach of RemoteFX and deliver a high fidelity experience to users in remote locations, providing a significantly better display quality and frame rate for RemoteFX on network connections with latency of 20ms or more, and greatly reducing stalls and bursts. Video playback is much smoother, and audio is clearer and remains in synch. Other key benefits include: smooth scrolling in any kind of document; instantaneous maximizing and minimizing of Windows; faster opening and closing of file menus and ribbons; and more responsive Internet browsing sessions. Together, RemoteFX and EOP Xtream yield an exceptional user experience. Quest has published a white paper measuring the user experience improvements delivered by using EOP Xtream in conjunction with RemoteFX on high-latency networks. It is available at http://www.quest.com/partners-profile/Microsoft-Win7SP1.aspx.
Dynamic Memory
Since the release of version 7.1 last year, Quest vWorkspace has worked with the components in the Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Suite – including the upcoming service pack for System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 R2 – to deploy and fully automate the management of Windows virtual desktops. With the introduction of Dynamic Memory in Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, organizations can speed the return on investment (ROI) and lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) by increasing the density of virtual desktops on Hyper-V. This increased density gives Hyper-V a significant cost advantage over other hypervisors. Dynamic Memory also ensures consistent and optimal virtual desktop performance by continually adjusting memory usage based on changing user workloads.
Quest vWorkspace’s industry-leading integration with Hyper-V and SCVMM has been updated to enable automated provisioning of virtual desktops using both RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory, delivering easy management of cost-effective virtual desktop farms built on the Microsoft VDI platform.
“As Hyper-V adoption continues to grow in the market, more and more customers are able to take advantage of the new virtualization capabilities in Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1,” said Manlio Vecchiet, Director of Product Management at Microsoft. “Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX are great examples of Microsoft’s commitment to driving innovation for desktop virtualization in its platform products. We are excited to see companies such as Quest Software enhance the Microsoft platform and enable managed virtual desktop solutions that allow for a great end user experience both over the LAN and the WAN.”
Availability
vWorkspace 7.2 Maintenance Release 1 (MR1) is targeted to be available in April 2011, and will be a free update for all vWorkspace customers with active maintenance.
To learn more about the upcoming maintenance release of vWorkspace, please visit http://www.quest.com/partners-profile/Microsoft-Win7SP1.aspx.