ViewSonic and Calgary-based Userful announced last month that they would bundle Userful's software and ViewSonic's hardware into a VDI bundle, and now the first solution from this partnership has been announced.
The new ViewSonic’s SC-U25 Value VDI Client with Userful Multiplatform Software
A month ago, visual technology hardware vendor ViewSonic and desktop virtualization software vendor Userful Corporation announced a strategic global partnership to offer a joint hardware-software VDI bundle for the economy market. Now, the first product from that collaboration has been announced, with ViewSonic’s SC-U25 Value VDI Client with Userful Multiplatform Software.
“This is a very unique product for us because it is a complete solution, with hardware and software bundled unto a single product,” said Mike Holstein, vice president of business development and emerging technologies for ViewSonic Americas. “Our past VDI products have only been hardware.”
Mike Holstein, VP of business development and emerging technologies for ViewSonic Americas
The ViewSonic SC-U25 is designed with simplicity first and foremost. It is an easy plug-and-play LAN client that supports Gigabit Ethernet-based installation for easy deployment and simple management, and which will also be easy to deploy for ViewSonic hardware partners who have not worked on VDI in the past.
“For years, virtualization has been about very complicated products that are expensive and require highly trained IT people, and this is changing that,” said Daniel Griffin, VP of Multiplied Computing at Calgary-based Userful. “Organizations came to see the limits of PCs in many cases, but traditional VDI was even more expensive and more complicated than PCs. This is changing all that.”
The SC-U25’s target markets start with education settings including libraries, labs and classrooms, a market where Userful had always been strong with its software offerings. The SC-U25 is also aimed at that part of the SMB market where simple, inexpensive VDI can play, including service businesses, call centers, hotel business centres and medical or dental offices.
The SC-U25 is optimized to support a broad range of virtualized desktops, including pre-configured Linux, Microsoft Windows (XP/7/8), Chrome-style sessions, digital signage, and cloud desktops connected to multiple displays in a local area network. It supports up to 20 users per PC server, and has been validated on three widely-used servers.
The features offered by the Userful Multiplatform include N+1 redundancy, allowing IT administrators to assign all deployed SC-U25 clients to corresponding host servers and redundant failover servers in case the main host server goes down. An RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port delivers an interactive user experience through multimedia content, four USB ports deliver flexible connectivity options for multiple peripherals and displays, and headphone and mic ports enhance multimedia functionality.
For Userful, which has been in business since 1999 and has shipped over a million seats, but remains a much less well-known brand than ViewSonic, these products are particularly exciting.
Daniel Griffin, VP of Multiplied Computing at Userful
“Since the partnership was announced a month ago, this has been great for us on so many fronts,” Griffin said. “We have a partnership with a company with global reach, so this product will be available to all their partners around the world. People are calling us up and asking what it means.”
ViewSonic already offers a broad range of VDI products in the market, and it is highly likely that the Userful partnership will lead to more solutions in the future.
“Userful has a great group of people, and collectively working together we will identify some very unique solutions moving forward,” Holstein said. “We are continuing to have a number of conversations.”
“We are excited about having those conversations!” Griffin added.
The ViewSonic SC-U25 Value VDI Client will be available in December at an MSRP of $USD 199.00.
