New Toshiba Virtual Desktop Service Backed by Citrix, VMware

Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD) is throwing its hat into the enterprise virtualization ring, kicking off its new BYOD-focused Virtual Desktop Service backed by Citrix (CTRX) and VMware (VMW) technology support.

The vendor is targeting the service, which will be hosted in Toshiba secure data centers, at midmarket and enterprise companies. The idea is to enable organizations of any size to deploy virtual desktops with reduced capital expenses, enhanced security and support for BYOD, Toshiba said.

Scott Sims, Toshiba DPD Cloud Solutions and Engineering vice president, said the impetus behind the vendor’s virtual desktop service is to help organizations secure corporate data while controlling capital expenses.

“Today’s organizations have an ever-growing need to secure corporate data, while controlling capital expenses—finding the right balance can be a challenge,” he said. “That’s why more and more organizations are choosing to implement hosted virtual desktops—like the Toshiba Virtual Desktop Service—as the smarter alternative to expensive on-premise solutions.”

The Toshiba virtual desktop service will leverage Citrix XenDesktop and VMware virtualization technology to allow Microsoft (MSFT) Windows operating system and other software traditionally located on individual PCs to be installed, stored, run and managed on servers in secure Toshiba data centers.

Software is streamed to client devices as needed through the Internet, enabling each application to work as an on-demand service that’s centrally managed, highly available, secure and up-to-date, Toshiba said.

“As the industry leader in virtualization, VMware is pleased that Toshiba has recognized the importance of the desktop virtualization market, and has elected to partner with VMware,” said Erik Frieberg, VMware End User Computing Product Marketing vice president.

In particular, Toshiba is touting the BYOD features of its virtual desktop service in that it will allow mobile workers to securely access company data from any Internet-enabled device with support for Windows, Linux, Google’s (GOOG) Android and Apple’s (AAPL) iOS.

“More and more organizations are adopting desktop virtualization to enable BYOD and mobile workstyles initiatives for their employees,” said Calvin Hsu Citrix Desktop and Apps Product Marketing vice president. “Toshiba Virtual Desktop Service using Citrix XenDesktop provides organizations with a complete solution to mobilize Windows apps and desktops on any device,” he said.