Solid ICE: desktop virtualization from Qumranet

Qumranet has just announced the general availability of its desktop virtualization suite called Solid ICE v4.1.

Solid ICE

I've been to Qumranet stand at VMworld Europe 2008, and was really impressed with the technology demo.

Here's a brief description of the Solid ICE:

By centrally hosting desktops in KVM (Kernelbased Virtual Machine) on servers in the corporate data center, Solid ICE (Independent Computing Environment) gives IT administrators greater control over desktop image management, provisioning management, policy enforcement and security.

Solid ICE also offers IT managers easier access to remote desktops to provide maintenance and support, as well as instant, inherent disaster recovery. In addition, businesses deploying a green IT strategy can achieve a savings of up to two thirds on electric power with Solid ICE.

Solid ICE is an integrated solution, so IT staff will find all the necessary tools for easy provisioning and management of virtual desktops, while users will be really impressed with the performance of their new desktop environment thanks to the SPICE rendering technology.

SPICE is an adaptive remote rendering protocol, which among other things supports 32bit graphics, uses client's resources for graphics processing and rendering, and is fully DirectX compliant.

Solid ICE benefits for end users

• 30+ fps video
• bi-directional audio/video for conferencing
• usb support (yes, even usb 2.0)
• multi-monitor configurations

Solid ICE benefits for IT deparments

• single point of administration for VDI
• fully integrated solution: VM image management, connection broker, templates for provisioning, etc.
• audit trails and compliance, policies to regulate user access

See also:

• Solid ICE – Press Release (PDF)
• RedHat acquires Qumranet for $107m