The next-generation replacement for the Dell Wyse 5020 is 30 per cent faster than its predecessor.
Jeff McNaught, VP and chief strategy officer at Dell Cloud Client-Computing
Dell has announced the Wyse 5060 thin client, a powerful mid-range VDI offering designed to support high end graphics, and aimed at knowledge workers demanding higher-level performance, primarily around the lower end of the workstation market.
“We’ve been working on refreshing the entire Wyse thin client line, and this is another step in that strategy,” said Jeff McNaught, VP and chief strategy officer at Dell Cloud Client-Computing.
Dell has three families of Wyse clients, organized on a good-better-best basis. The 3000 series is the entry level, while the 7000 series is the high end, designed for companies with very long lifecycle expectations — 8-10 years.
“This is the middle family,” McNaught said. “It is a very powerful mid-range device, designed for use with high end graphics, and the low end of products for applications from companies like Autodesk and PTC. High end designers typically can dictate the devices they get, and they usually get Dell Precision workstation. But workstation use is evolving, and many want a workstation at home as well, and this goes there. It’s a way to expand the market for flexibility.
“In addition, some industries want to move some strategic design work to lower cost countries. Shipping a workstation away is a risk. This is much safer, and allows the work that lower end designers can do.”
The Wyse 5060 has an AMD Steppe Eagle 2.6GHz quad core processor that supports up to 8GB RAM and 64GB flash. It supports dual 4K (3840×2160) monitors and provides multiple connectivity options with six USB ports, two of which are USB 3.0 for high-speed peripherals, as well as two Display Ports, wired networking or wireless 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac. It also has full support for unified communications.
“It is about 30 per cent faster than the Wyse 5020, the previous generation,” McNaught indicated.
“This is one of the first products in the mid-range that supports 4K displays,” McNaught said. “Many users won’t have 4K this year, or even, next year, but they likely will within the life cycle of product, which is 6 to 8 years.”
The Wyse 5060 also has multiple security layers. They include with the Wyse 5060 thin client. The device itself includes an embedded Trusted Platform Module chipset with the ability to recognize if a system’s integrity has been compromised while safely storing encryption keys, certificates and passwords. Security also is built in at the software level, for both the Wyse ThinOS system and Windows.
“The ThinOS is the most secure thin client in industry, which has never been hacked successfully,” McNaught said. “In the Americas, more than half of the devices are based on ThinOS. We expect that will continue to grow as ThinOS remains the gold standard in security.”
Some customers opt for a Windows-based thin client, and they can get software security through Dell Data Protection | Threat Defense.
“The decision to use Windows is typically a management decision, where they pick a thin client that can be managed by Microsoft SCCM [Systems Center Configuration Manager],” McNaught said. “In some environments like health care and banking, there are also a lot of peripherals that Windows supports out of the box. Dell Protection | Threat Defense uses artificial threat intelligence and machine learning to block 99.6 per cent of malware. It introduces an entirely new level of security for a Windows OS.”
McNaught said that this is an ideal channel product.
“I’m seeing more of my business shift to channel which is not a surprise,” he said. “Wyse was 100 per cent channel before it was acquired, and Im continuing to increase my investment in the channel. This is a perfect match for what channel wants to do, because it’s something that can be sticky. It’s not just selling a box.”
The Wyse 5060 thin client will be available in the U.S and Canada starting December 13, 2016. At launch, the 5060 can be purchased with Dell’s own Wyse ThinOS software or with Windows Embedded Standard (WES) 7p. In early 2017, an upgrade to Windows 10 IoT will be available for WES customers, and the 5060 will also be available with Wyse ThinLinux. Pricing is not yet available.
