While the two major new alliances were the splashy announcements, CloudJumper also announced the release of version 5.3 of their Cloud Workspace Management Suite.

At the Microsoft Inspire event in Las Vegas, CloudJumper announced two significant new partnerships. The partnership with IGEL, which makes an edge OS for cloud workspaces, now has the CloudJumper Cloud Workspace Management Suite [CWMS] integrated with the IGEL Universal Management Suite [UMS] as a custom partition, to be followed by a full integration. The NVIDIA integration is a GPU-based one that uses NVIDIA NV-Series Machines with Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop [WVD] in Azure under the management of CloudJumper’s Cloud Workspace for Azure. In addition to the partnerships, CloudJumper also announced a new version of CWMS, version 5.3. The key changes with the release are a free public preview for Microsoft WVD, as well as support for Azure Government cloud.

“Version 5.3 has some real enhancements in our software, but the big news here is primarily the strategic announcements, which are Robin Brandl’s work,” said JD Helms, CloudJumper’s President. “We are really connecting the dots in the EUC [end user computing] ecosystem.”

“Inspire will be big for us because of our new partnerships with key players in end user computing – IGEL and NVIDIA,” said Brandl, who is Vice President of Strategic Alliances at CloudJumper.

CloudJumper has been doing some work with IGEL in the field, and had a table at IGEL’s Disrupt event in Austin earlier this year. The new announcement significantly extends the relationship, however.

“We have been partnering with them in terms of working together in bringing them into customers,” Brandl said. “Now we are working closely with IGEL creating robust solutions, taking it forward from an innovation standpoint. We are integrating their management with our stuff, and our management with their stuff.”

The integration combines CloudJumper’s CWMS and IGEL’s Workspace Edition and Enterprise Management Pack software which includes the Linux-based IGEL OS and IGEL UMS to leverage Linux to, ironically, make it easier to adopt multi-session Windows 10 desktops and applications.

The CloudJumper CWMS has now been integrated with the IGEL UMS through a custom partition. The companies plan to co-develop full integration between CloudJumper CWMS and IGEL’s OS firmware in the coming months.

The companies are doing demos of the combined solution this week at Inspire, at IGEL Booth #2513 and CloudJumper Booth #1806.

The other big partnership, with NVIDIA, involves a collaboration with CloudJumper which will see a high-performance NVIDIA GPU-based solution that uses NV-Series Machines with WVD in Azure, managed by Cloud Workspace for Azure.

“This is a brand-new partnership, and we are only working with them in this way, because they are really the only big player in the cloud,” Brandl said. “This NVIDIA GPU delivery method within Azure lets customers run high end graphics apps that previously couldn’t run in the cloud.”

The NVIDIA NV-Series Machines leverage virtual GPUs, which provide consistent performance with guaranteed quality of service in the cloud. NV-Series Machines have the industry’s highest user density with support for up to 32 virtual desktops per GPU and lower TCO, with up to 8 vGPU profiles for the flexibility to provision resources to match user requirements.

“No one can do as we do the ability to shape the consumption of those machines on and off for this graphics capacity,” Helms said. “That can cut costs as much as 70 per cent.”

“Most companies have found that most employees are only using this 4-5 hours a week, so being able to only pay for what you use is important,” Brandl said. “Before, we or the customer would have to figure it out on our own, because we didn’t have access to the NVIDIA engineering department like we do now. And  this is just the start of the partnership. We are also working with them on hybrid models and integrated licensing. As as well as high end CAD and CAM, we are working with them in the low end, because there, customers will pay extra for the NVIDIA graphics card.”

NVIDIA will be at the CloudJumper Booth #1806 to discuss the partnership during Inspire.

CloudJumper also announced a third new partnership, with CNE Direct.

“They are in the recycling business, although they resell some and recycle others,” Brandl said. “We will work with them to make sure customers have what they need to move to the cloud, in terms of being able to dispose of their old equipment.”

Buried somewhat under all the big partnership announcements was the general availability of CWMS version 5.3 – which is also being demoed at CloudJumper’s booth #1806.

“The biggest element of the release is the that includes support for Microsoft WVD public preview,” Helms said. “It is free in the public preview, until Microsoft is ready to GA it. This is a big step for us.

Other 5.3 enhancements include new network segmentation for enhanced security, and support for the Azure Government cloud.