FD Insights Issue 6 | Page 78

Redefining Desktop Delivery via Samsung’s Cloud Display PCoIP Zero Clients A resurgence in VDI and DaaS has enabled Samsung to showcase their latest range of Cloud Display Clients. R cently there has been a resurgence of the technologies known as “Virtual Desktop Infrastructure” (VDI), and most recently branded “Desktop as a Service” (DaaS) solution offerings, which apply the described methodology to an additional enterprise services realm – the Enterprise Desktop. While most Cloud-aware products and services are designed to be delivered via a web browser or mobile device application, there are scenarios where the capabilities and power inherent in a device and web access mechanism exceeds that which are required for a fully-fledged Desktop Experience. For these situations, businesses require a new way of thinking in order to deliver the best “near Desktop” experience to their user base. Samsung is pushing the envelope with their pioneering Cloud Display range of zero clients. Samsung has provided users with end user devices that are both svelte and elegant while delivering a no-sacrifice desktop experience. Samsung has focused on building the best possible zero client devices while utilising the least amount of physical desk real estate, says Ryan Leih, Senior Virtualisation Engineer at Cybervine IT Solutions. The Samsung NC241, NC191 and NB-NH cloud display zero clients all feature the latest Teradici TERA2 PCoIP offload processor, specifically designed to offer the best possible desktop delivery for users via the PCoIP protocol. And while both the NC241 and NC191 come as complete units with screen and zero client in one, the NB-NH units ship as a zero client monitor stand on which you can attach any VESA mount compatible monitor – therefore facilitating an upgrade path for clients with existing hardware. Grant Vine, Solutions Architect at Cybervine goes on to describe the PCoIP protocol as much like watching a TV channel. Screen updates are streamed to the user with an acceptable level of packet loss allowed as the human eye simply cannot take in an entire screen update as a single view. Optimisations are made around the successful and clear delivery of the current eye’s focal points such as the location of the mouse cursor or keyboard cursor. Multiple algorithms are at work in the background that the Samsung Cloud Display devices are specifically designed to understand and maximise – this is the power of the TERA2 processors over a traditional Thin Client running a more generalised approach to remote desktop delivery. 76 | www.firstdistribution.co.za Using the concepts of already proven technologies such as Voice or Video over IP (VoIP), such as the use of UDP as the streaming protocol, the PCoIP protocol is able to inherit many of the same optimisation and traffic management mechanisms already in existence for these services. Samsung’s Zero Clients additionally support Quality of Service (QoS) markings directly from the Zero Client, exactly like existing Voice platforms operate, thus allowing for end to end QoS management. In fact, the network traffic is so similar and uses many of the same network packet matching definitions of VoIP, that the integration of a PCoIP delivered solution onto a network already optimised for VoIP can inherit some of those same optimisations for remote desktop delivery – both on the WAN and LAN infrastructure if end-to-end VoIP QoS has been implemented. “ Samsung has provided users with end user devices that are both svelte and elegant while delivering a nosacrifice desktop experience. ” With the wide variety of Teradi