Blue gradient Windows Server background image Blue gradient Windows Server background image
a person sitting at a table using a laptop
·
·
3 min read

The RemoteFX industry ships products today

Hi, I’m Rob Williams, the Partner Ecosystem Program Manager for RemoteFX at Microsoft.  Today is a big day for Microsoft and our RemoteFX partners. Today’s release of RemoteFX with Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows 7 SP1 is the culmination of two years’ close collaboration between engineers at Microsoft and engineers in great companies across our industry. This work has allowed us to build a new graphics experience for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) customers.  The download for this release will enable millions of existing servers to run RDP 7.1 with RemoteFX and Remote Desktop Services.  Hundreds of millions of Windows 7 Client machines will be enabled to take advantage of the benefits associated with accessing RemoteFX-capable servers.
 
RemoteFX for Remote Desktop Services supports both Remote Desktop Session Hosts (RDSH) and Remote Desktop Virtualization Hosts (RDVH).  A new feature of RemoteFX for VDI that we are particularly excited about is the world’s first virtualized Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) platform for VDI. We have been working closely with Intel, Nvidia and AMD to build this feature.  Intel is blogging about their Xeon processors running RemoteFX and both Nvidia and AMD are releasing their official RemoteFX GPU boards today.  These boards are being incorporated into servers from the world’s leading server OEMs. HP, Dell, IBM and NEC are all ready to release and support their customers’ RemoteFX deployments.
 
In addition to virtualized GPUs in servers, another really exciting part of RemoteFX technology is the move to support a wider range of thin clients, including zero clients.  HP, Wyse, iGEL, and DevonIT are all announcing RemoteFX thin clients today.  Two new companies are entering into the thin client market with zero clients to support RemoteFX: Cloudium is blogging about the release today and ThinLinX is posting videos of their client in action for both RDSH and RDVH.  It is great to see the excitement around these new small but fast devices.
 
In anticipation of today’s release HP has been designing RemoteFX capable servers and thin clients.  Today they are releasing a RemoteFX reference architecture along with announcing their support of RemoteFX on their thin client. 
 
Dell is publishing a RemoteFX solution brief and blogging about running RemoteFX on Dell PowerEdge R710 and PowerEdge M610x blade servers.
 
Wyse has been working closely with us since the very early days of RemoteFX.  I’ve been using my Wyse R class desktop and X class mobile thin client running early versions of RemoteFX to access my VMs for the last year.  Today Wyse is announcing that they are delivering RemoteFX on those platforms and their new Z class.
 
iGEL is announcing a line of Linux thin clients that will all support RemoteFX along with RemoteFX support in their Universal Desktop Converter Software.  If you are going to CeBIT, be sure to stop by their booth to see a live demo.
 
DevonIT is also announcing support for RemoteFX in their new TC5Xc thin client and announcing their upcoming support in DeTOS and a new DevonIT ARM client.
 
Because the new model of remoting in RemoteFX enables very thin and zero clients, we have been working closely with Texas Instruments to build the semiconductors that will power the next generation of RemoteFX zero client devices.  TI’s DM3730 is their first entry in a family of TI processors that will target the RemoteFX zero client market.  You will see clients based on that device coming out this year.  Check out TI’s blog about their entry into this market.
 
All of these great companies are joined by our software partners in announcements. These software partners have also been working closely with us to test and support RemoteFX.
 
Last year, Microsoft and Citrix signed a collaboration agreement for RemoteFX which will enable Citrix to integrate and leverage RemoteFX technologies within its XenDesktop suite of products and HDX.  Citrix is blogging about our release today.  We have also been working with Quest who  announced support for RemoteFX and our SP1 release in Quest vWorkspace.  They are also blogging about today’s release.
d
Ericom announced PowerTerm WebConnect’s Integration with RemoteFX.
d
Riverbed has been testing RemoteFX and showing what their technology can do for RemoteFX customers.  Today they are blogging about the release and have a great video showing Steelhead Appliances accelerating RemoteFX across the WAN.
 
It has been great to work so closely with industry leaders to bring this technology to market.  I can’t wait to hear the feedback from users when you finally get your hands on a virtualized desktop that delivers a true Windows 7 experience to the thinnest of clients.
 
Be sure to read, Tad Brockway, RemoteFX’s Product Unit Manager’s blog for a bit of history of the team and details on how RemoteFX will change the industry.
d
Now that RemoteFX is available I encourage you all to download the SP1 updates for your server and clients and take a look at the great RemoteFX products that are available today.

Related posts