Leostream Connection Broker 7.0 Support VMware View, Apple iPad & Failover

Leostream, a provider of virtual hosted desktop software, has introduced a new version of its Connection Broker technology aimed at providing IT departments with more capabilities to support and manage their virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). The Leostream Connection Broker enables IT managers to integrate an assortment of desktop clients, back-end systems and viewers to create a hosted VDI. It provides functions for operations and change management, user access, security and compliance and more.

Connection Broker 7.0 now provides tighter integration with VMware View, which is VMware's tool for helping desktop administrators virtualize the desktop operating system (OS), applications, and user data as well as manage those virtual components. Connection Broker 7.0 also includes support for mobile devices including the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, Connection Broker cluster management capabilities, desktop failover plans and a number of other features that Leosteam says are designed to streamline the management of a VDI.

Connection Broker provides organizations with a vendor-neutral, unified solution for managing a variety of desktops. VMware View, for example, only works with VMware virtual desktops. Connection Broker supports all the basic hypervisor platforms and any number of physical machines, offering flexibility that is vital to larger enterprises that do not want to get locked into a single architecture and instead want to adopt best-of-breed solutions, according to Mike Palin, Leostream's CEO.

Leostream continues to extend the integration with the hypervisors' existing management tools and the tighter integration with VMware View. Now, Connection Broker 7.0 allows soft PC-over-IP (PCoIP) connections--as opposed to hardware-based PCoIP--for VMware View users who require high-performance graphics. The integration also provides View administrators with the versatility of the Leostream Connection Broker, letting them extend VDI to include a variety of different platforms while providing users with a single login to all resources.

Through a partnership with HLW Software Development GmbH (HLW), the Leostream Connection Broker now works with the iTap Remote Desktop Protocol (iTap RDP) and Virtual Network Computing (iTap VNC) clients, allowing end-users access to Windows and Linux virtual desktops using  Apple mobile devices, including the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Leostream plans to add support for other handheld mobile devices, although no announcements have been made.Connection Broker 7.0 also includes a universal serial bus (USB) redirect functionality that is now available to facilitate use of fully functional Linux virtual desktops. New desktop failover plans are designed to ensure that a backup desktop is offered to end users in the event that the primary one fails. A cluster management feature provides a unified view of all Connection Brokers in a cluster providing IT with the ability to simultaneously perform consolidated actions on clusters. For example, modifying network settings or setting time zones for all brokers simultaneously.

The Universit de Rennes 2, located in Brittany, France, has VDI that currently supports 17,000 students and faculty members. The university is using Leostream's Connection Broker, integrated with a management solution for virtual desktops from Unibroker, to provision its virtual desktops and deliver applications.  

According to Humberto Duarte, the university's IT department co-director, the VID solution was built in 2006, before VMware View. Today, the school's VDI consists of VMWare's Vsphere 4, the Leostream Connection Broker (version 6.5) and Wyse thin clients. Each virtual machine has an OS streamed via the network using Citrix PVS software, and inside each VM the university uses Thinapp.

Duarte says the university will upgrade to Connection Broker 7.0. The new support for handhelds is particularly compelling. Most of the university's mobile workers have iPhone. In addition, the university's art students and researches use iPads . "All these users connect to the VMs from laptops using Leostream. Now they want to extend this functionality to their handheld devices," he says.

He adds that the cluster capability is a "must have for us. The current version of Connection Broker lacks this unifed cluster management."