IBM is offering a VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) package that costs US$150 per user annually.
“The IBM Virtual Desktop for Smart Business offering should help ease the high administrative overhead normally associated with setting up VDI deployments,” said Dan Cerutti, general manager of IBM’s Smart Business Solutions unit.
“We’ve dramatically simplified how you order and buy these things. Everything is included in the Virtual Desktop Solution,” Cerutti said.
The VDI package will allow workers to access desktops from a variety of devices, including iPads and thin clients. They could access both Microsoft Windows and Linux-based operating system desktops. Users can even run the desktops without connectivity, by use of a USB drive.
The desktops are managed centrally, on IBM System X servers running Suse Linux. The desktop virtualization is done through the Verde software, offered by Virtual Bridges
