Teradici Extends Cloud Access Software to Microsoft Azure Stack with PCoIP Ultra

Teradici’s virtual desktop software now can connect to dedicated on-premises cloud instances with support for Microsoft Azure Stack.

A new release of Teradici Cloud Access Software is the first third-party desktop solution certified for appliances based on Microsoft’s Azure Stack platform, according to Teradici. Azure Stack appliances are integrated servers, storage and network systems co-engineered by Microsoft and OEM partners such as Cisco, Dell EMC, HPE and Lenovo. The solutions allow organizations to distribute workloads between the public cloud and on-premises data centers.

Teradici Cloud Access already supports the Microsoft Azure public cloud. By certifying the software to work with Azure Stack as well, partners can deploy remote desktop client services in hybrid cloud environments, including disconnected, or occasionally connected scenarios.

Teradici’s Ziad Lammam

“It’s the next step up if you’re looking to deploy the equivalent of Azure in a disconnected environment or anywhere that has like regulatory requirements for the user data, or just anyone that wants the benefits of cloud on prem,” said Ziad Lammam, Teradici’s VP of product management.

Initially, Teradici Cloud Access is available in the Azure Marketplace with Azure Stack HCI, offered in the form of scalable appliances offered by Microsoft’s OEM partners. It will also work with Microsoft’s Azure Stack Hub, the company’s new set of Azure services such as VMs, web apps, SQL Server and MySQL Server databases that partners can offer as managed services.

Based on Teradici’s new PC over IP (PCoIP) Ultra protocol, its Cloud Access delivers remote Windows and Linux desktop services from Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and VMware cloud services. PCoIP Ultra is an alternative to virtual client protocols such as Citrix HDX, VMware Blast and Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Similar to those protocols, PCoIP encrypts and uses compression to transmit pixels of the desktop experience to virtual clients from various software solutions, on-premises and cloud VDI platforms and endpoint hardware.

Among those using or evaluating Teradici’s Cloud Access with Azure Stack are enterprises in the oil and gas industry, manufacturers and financial services firms, Lammam said. Azure Stack also is attractive to large U.S. federal agencies mandated to move to cloud-based platforms, he said.

Terardici’s Cloud Access with PCoIP Ultra connected to Azure Stack aims to address high-performance virtual clients in private cloud scenarios, Lamman added.

“It’s suited for high-performance use cases where customers need to run pretty big workloads with high compute or GPU requirements,” he said. “But at the same time, some of the sectors aren’t quite ready to plunge into public cloud.”

PCoIP Ultra is an upgraded version of Teradici’s PCoIP protocol that the company launched last year with new hardware acceleration capability for GPUs and multicloud support. Coinciding with that rollout, AMD, Microsoft and Teradici said they had begun working together to provide full GPU access to the new Azure NVv4 instance with the AMD Radeon Instinct MI25 accelerator and 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor.

Teradici’s PCoIP Ultra will also work with new thin client hardware announced earlier this month by Igel. The new Igel UD3 endpoint for cloud workspace environments is based on AMD’s Ryzen Embedded R1505G system-on-chip (SoC) client. It’s the first new hardware in its line of Universal Desktop endpoints launched recently by Igel, which has become better known lately for its Igel OS software.

“A couple of our friends in the industry have been spreading rumors that Igel is getting out of the hardware business because we are so software-focused, but that’s not true at all,” said Dan O’Farrell, Igel’s senior director of product marketing. “We’ve got a large install that base wants us to keep producing great endpoints, and that what we will keep doing.”

While Igel has enabled PCoIP Ultra support in other providers’ hardware, UD3 is the company’s first client with Teradici’s newest device acceleration software. Igel said UD 3 is also will offer optional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support for the first time. The new client will also support dual 4K displays, USB-C and traditional USB-A ports. Igel’s new UD3 clients are set for release in May.