Virtual Computer, the market leader in distributed desktop virtualization, today announced the availability of NxTop® Version 3 Service Pack 1. The new release provides full IT control of the end-point through advanced management capabilities in NxTop Center, while at the same time enabling greater end-user flexibility.   

“The ability to fully control and manage the client end-point from a central server is a huge value-add,” said Chuck Miller, Director of IT for the Town of Lincoln, Mass. “The capabilities NxTop is providing in this new release are invaluable to help IT departments manage the environment while delivering exceptional service to end-users.”

According to Ian Song, Senior Research Analyst for System and Virtualization Software at IDC, “As enterprise IT departments find themselves managing increasingly distributed and heterogeneous environments, it is becoming more important than ever for them to both ensure a good end-user experience and put in place controls that result in greater manageability. Products like NxTop help IT more easily manage these environments, cutting costs and saving time.”

Some of the new capabilities released in this Service Pack include:

• Complete Centralized Control over the end-point including control over ports, logon and launcher configuration, update interval settings, network access controls for wired and wireless networks, restart policies and more.
• End-User Flexibility with Apple-like Dock to swiftly move between multiple virtual machines (VMs), enabling users to seamlessly work across both a secure corporate environment and flexible personal environment on a single PC.
• Remote Provisioning On-the-go with a USB provisioning kit that can be used to re-provision a laptop on the road in case of disaster, synchronizing only the delta-differences to quickly recover a PC, even over a slow remote connection.

“This new release offers a great way to resolve the growing tension between IT professionals looking for more control and end-users requesting more flexibility,” said Dan McCall, CEO of Virtual Computer. “It enables the concept of ‘1-PC 2-Lives’ and offers better manageability than VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) without the cost or infrastructure investments.”

NxTop combines a centralized management system with an enhanced Xen™-based client hypervisor to create a single, cost-effective platform for any combination of local desktops, remote VDI sessions, and server- and cloud-based applications, significantly reducing desktop operating costs without compromising mobility, user experience, or current PC investments.

Pricing and Availability

NxTop Version 3 SP1 is available now. Existing NxTop Version 3 customers will be able to upgrade as part of their maintenance agreements.

Companies looking to try NxTop can download it free: http://www.virtualcomputer.com/.