July 5, 2011 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) –
ThinkGrid, the world’s first platform vendor enabling real IT services from the cloud, is today launching Microsoft Windows 7-based Hosted Virtual Desktops. The updated service offers businesses access to the full Windows 7 experience, greater flexibility around hardware and a cost-effective alternative to traditional Windows migration in one low monthly price.
Rob Lovell, CEO at ThinkGrid, commented: “With support for Windows XP coming to an end, many businesses will soon have to upgrade to Windows 7 and incur significant Capex and migration costs. The Hosted Virtual Desktop route offers businesses an Opex path to Windows 7, and as with the original XP solution, a fully personalised Windows experience. This includes the ability to install ANY application since each user has their own persistent virtual machine, something no other cloud providers today are able to offer. We believe this is the most advanced Hosted Virtual Desktop solution in the market, offering the tightest integration of existing cloud and on-premise computing.”
Organisations can purchase the service through ThinkGrid’s partner network on a monthly Opex basis per user per month - from as little as £1/$1.50US per day. There is no minimum number of seats and no Microsoft licenses or additional hardware required. The service has ground-breaking remote video performance at 1080i resolution, allowing end-users to view a range of digital content not previously possible with server-based desktop computing. Alongside the rich functionality of a Windows 7 virtual desktop there are also significant management benefits such as real-time resource management, group management and active directory. Businesses no longer have to perform manual upgrades across all machines, which will save time and resources. ThinkGrid Hosted Virtual Desktops with Windows 7 can be accessed from a range of clients including the Apple iPad.
Lovell concluded: “For us, the Windows 7 experience from the cloud marks a potential year zero for desktop computing. The age-old pain points around operating system upgrades will disappear and give way to a much more flexible IT environment. For example, businesses can more easily support the trend of employee-owned devices, where people want to bring their home laptops or tablets into the workplace, by allowing them to run Hosted Virtual Desktops on these machines. Aside from no longer having to shoulder hardware costs, the wider benefit is that business-level IT is delivered in a far more secure environment with no data residing on the machine itself. In fact, because any updates or even OS upgrades take place in the cloud, end-users are completely abstracted from the process of IT management.”
About ThinkGrid
Founded in 2008, ThinkGrid is a private corporation headquartered in the UK, with offices located in London, Seattle, Sydney, Belgrade and Lviv by an experienced management team. ThinkGrid operate tier 3 & 4 data centres across the world to house their platform, which delivers real IT services such as Hosted Virtual Desktop, Virtual Server, Voice to their partners. Partners then can use their state-of-the-art software platform to provision, bill, manage and service their customers in real-time.
