HVE ConneXions (a Sphere 3D company based in Texas) offers HVE (hybrid virtual engine) virtual desktop infrastructure, an appliance supporting desktop virtualization. The product line includes a non-converged VDI appliance and converged VDI appliances.
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Unidesk (Discontinued)
Score 5.7 out of 10
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Unidesk was a virtual desktop technology from the Massachusetts company of the same name, and acquired by Citrix. It has reached End of Life (EOL).
HVE-VDI is well suited in just about any environment were desktops and servers need to be managed. Schools, Government institutions, Banks, Churches etc. If you are needing to run virtual desktops and just not sure on how to do so. HVE inc is for sure the company that you need.
Right now, I would advise it to anybody who has 1,500 or fewer users they wish to provide desktops for. I would advise to go with persistent desktops or use a UEM solution like AppSense or RES Workspace Manager when trying the non-persistent desktops. I would suggest that using an AppVirt product like App-V with Unidesk still makes a lot of sense as you can use Shared Content Store Mode and sequence once for many. AppVirt solutions still have value with isolation. I would suggest looking at Turbo browsers for their redirect feature to an sandboxed browser running legacy IE or a browser with Java or Flash (to eliminate security threats related to these running locally on the system). Also, I would suggest looking at Atlantis for deduplicating those desktops and allow them to perform quicker with less storage required. Unidesk by itself is awesome. It really simplifies things. Throw it together with other products and each compliments the other well. Also, Unidesk makes some of those other products more valuable as you're not completely reliant on them like you would be without Unidesk.
Maybe price. They do a really good job in their pricing... But sometimes it is still little about the price range for some small schools.
Choosing vendors. In my area, they have partnered with a small tech company that does not have a great track record. To be able to choose who I can purchase from would be great. But, they have worked with me to help with this.
Maybe easier to get onsite support. Most of the time a remote connection is how support works. To get on site is a little tough. But again, HVE has always come through. I'm just having to be very picky.
Disaster recovery options for the Unidesk solution are not easily accessible or require personalized attention from support.
Issues when creating software layers do not always have a obvious fix. Make sure to look for and follow Unidesk's published "recipes."
The software/OS layering introduced by Unidesk is not "sanctioned" behavior by Microsoft, and thus you're at the mercy of Unidesk's ability to keep up with widespread changes to operating systems.
AppVolumes seems to be a lot less mature as a product. It does have some benefits over Unidesk e.g. the fact it doesn't include the OS Layer (image management) side means I can just use it for the app layering piece if I like. I can also deploy my application layers to physical desktops BUT I have had less success compatibility wise with my applications as AppVolumes 'AppStacks'. I believe Unidesk has a better handle on the do's and don'ts, or at least may be a little more honest about them. I also don't enjoy the Console with AppVolumes and while I can use it without the image management or tied into the stack the way Unidesk is...you also lose that image management and need to couple it with another product in some scenarios. FlexApp to me is stronger than AppVolumes. FlexApp is coupled with a profile management solution called ProfileUnity which makes it a more attractive alternative (at least at the time of me posting this). However, I prefer other UEM products at this moment in time. I also value the image management and ease of a single console for all of Virt Desktop management that Unidesk provides.
They have made us one of the leading schools in our area for sure.
We were able to role out Texas Online State Testing with little to no problems. THIS IS HUGE!!
Less downtime... Their server solutions are one of the most stable in the business. I rarely ever have server issues. When you do, you can be back up and be going in Minutes.
Storage density with Unidesk (via the use of OS/application layering) is 60-70% improved over standard persistent one-to-one virtual desktops.
Unidesk virtual machines can be deployed in under 10 minutes by a lower tier of technician without the need to "touch" the vCenter hypervisor.
Reliable performance across Unidesk virtual workstations. Added desktops/layers does not adversely effect performance nearly as bad as older persistent desktops.
