Teradici and CounterPath Corp. today introduced the industry’s first scalable voice unified communications (UC) solution for PCoIP Zero Clients in VMware desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments. With CounterPath’s Bria Virtualized Edition softphone client, organizations can cost effectively enable UC functionality and workplace collaboration, while taking full advantage of secure, high performance, easy-to-manage PCoIP end points to deliver an outstanding virtual computing experience.

Bria Virtualized Edition client for PCoIP Zero Clients enables access to voice, messaging, presence, contacts and social media in the workplace across the broadest range of SIP (session initiated protocol)-compliant UC systems within VMware Horizon DaaS and VMware Horizon environments, including Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, BroadSoft, Cisco, GENBAND, Metaswitch Networks and Mitel. Bria softphone client integration with Teradici Tera2 PCoIP Zero Clients enables a rich voice UC experience by offloading all voice data from the data center, and instead routing audio directly between caller end points. To address a variety of enterprise use cases, additional versions of the Bria client are available for mobile and desktop devices across standard OS platforms.

“Bringing voice to the PCoIP Zero Client desktop is a significant milestone for the industry – and phenomenal news for a broader base of VMware end users in the enterprise,” said Erik Frieberg, vice president of product marketing, End-User Computing, VMware. “High-quality voice communications on the virtual desktop has become a ‘must-have’ for today’s knowledge workers.  We’re delighted that Teradici and CounterPath are bringing a full suite of voice UC tools to market, seamlessly delivered on secure zero client end points from premier manufacturers, such as Dell, HP, LG, Samsung.”

Built for the cloud, PCoIP Zero Client end points displace traditional PCs at a fraction of the cost. In contrast to PC hardware, all user data and computing applications remain in the data center, with only pixels transmitted to the zero client end point, resulting in significant cost efficiencies and optimal security.  Zero client end points have no operating system or browser, making them simple to manage and update, and centrally-hosted desktops enhance end user mobility, allowing users to move between devices while securely preserving their desktop environment.

“Together with Teradici, we’re excited to bring voice UC functionality to millions of current and prospective zero client users,” said Bruce Ford, vice president of product management, CounterPath “Now, IT managers will not only have the ability to stream clear, real-time voice transmissions on zero clients, but can easily scale to support hundreds or thousands of desktops. Bria Virtualized Edition for PCoIP Zero Clients will open up new possibilities for organizations of all sizes to enjoy the productivity benefits of voice communications while realizing the full potential of desktop virtualization.” 

“Our partnership with CounterPath has resulted in a best-in-class UC product offering that’s well matched to the needs of today’s flexible, collaborative work styles,” added Jayesh Shah, vice president of product management, Teradici. “Bria Virtualized Edition, paired with PCoIP Zero Clients, offers enterprise IT an ultra-secure UC solution that’s easy to deploy and manage for an exceptional end user experience. In use cases where UC is a critical requirement, they’ll no longer have to resort to more costly, cumbersome thin or thick client devices. Based on early customer response, we’re seeing broad applicability far beyond traditional call center use cases in education, energy, finance, government, healthcare and retail, to name a few. ”

To learn more about CounterPath Bria, go to: http://www.counterpath.com/bria. For more information about Teradici PCoIP Zero Clients, go to: http://www.teradici.com/zeroclient.

Pricing & Availability

Bria Virtualized Edition client and PCoIP Zero Clients with UC interoperability will be generally available worldwide, starting in December 2014, with support services from both CounterPath and Teradici.