Ulteo Open Virtual Desktop 3.0 Features: an open and secure application delivery solution

Ulteo OVD v3.0 is addressing IT departments needs to manage desktop deployments and application delivery projects with a great flexibility.

With Ulteo's Open Virtual Desktop (OVD) technology, corporations are able to quickly install and deploy an OVD Session Manager with one or more OVD Application Servers. After defining users and creating a “publication”, end users can access the applications provided by Open Virtual Desktop using different possible modes:

• Windows or Linux Desktop with a mix of remote Windows and/or Linux applications
• Application Portal, to run remote Windows and/or Linux applications from web links
• Application Publishing, to get remote Windows and/or Linux applications seamlessly integrated in the local end-user desktop

End users's software clients to access Ulteo's OVD can be:

• either a web-browser
• or a pre-installed OVD client
• iPad and Android clients are available too (desktop mode only)

Download the OVD 3.0 PDF product sheet: for screen reading | for printing

[ Screenshots v | Key features v | OVD project architectures v ]

Ulteo OVD v3 Screenshots

Windows & Linux apps on a Windows desktop, in the web browser.	Windows & Linux apps on a Linux desktop, in the web browser.
Portal mode, with embedded filemanager.	Portal mode, running two flavours of Excel.
Application mode, with remote Windows & Linux applications integration on Windows 7 desktop.	Applications mode, displaying the remote applications seamlessly on the local desktop.
OVD client for iPad, login screen.	OVD client for iPad, running a session.
OVD client for Android, desktop session.	OVD client for Android, using Writer.
OVD administration console, OVD servers summary.	OVD administration console, application summary.
OVD administration console, Active Directory configuration.	OVD administration console, logging/monitoring.

Typical Ulteo OVD 3.x architectures

Here are a few examples of Ulteo Open Virtual Desktop V3.0 core architectures (click for larger image).

OVD v3 - Desktop mode		OVD v3 - Application mode (Web portal or Desktop integration)		OVD v3 - Application mode or Desktop mode with WAN access through OVD Gateway

Infrastructure overview & Ulteo OVD "vision"

Ulteo OVD is all about mixing various applications sources into a consistant stream that can be delivered to users, depending on their needs. It's also been designed to be integrated in heterogeneous environments and inter-operate with various technologies (click for larger image)

Key Features

Windows and/or Linux Application delivery

Ulteo's Open Virtual Desktop delivers applications that are hosted on Linux servers or via Windows Terminal Services to any Java-enabled web browser, to any desktop (Windows, MacOS, Linux, thin client), anywhere (WAN-enable).
Windows applications are served from Windows Server 2003 or 2008/2008R2 servers.

The provided “base” set of Linux applications include the OpenOffice productivity suite, Firefox web browser, Thunderbird email client, Pidgin instant messaging client, and more. Additional Linux applications may be installed and deployed by the system administrator.

Multiple choices for end-user Interface

Applications are delivered to users by way of:

• a Windows 7-like or Linux desktop – Users log into a full-featured desktop to access applications “published” by the administrator, or
• through a web-portal – The application portal provides a file manager for basic file system manipulation, and icons for launching applications in individual web browser windows, or
• dynamic integration in the end user's local desktop, making them available the same way as if they were locally installed

User clients include:

• a web-browser(*)
• a dedicated Ulteo client software for Linux or Windows PCs or thin clients
• an iOS or Android tablet (desktop mode only)

(*) The web-browser needs a Java plugin to perform. An HTML5 client will follow soon.

Local desktop integration

Local printers, local drives, network shares, USB sticks, sound support, copy-paste are provided with OVD v3.0.

Easy and centrally managed Administrator Web console

A full-featured administrator web console is provided for configuring server settings, managing users, publishing applications, and for monitoring servers.
An easy to use wizard walks the administrator through the process of publishing applications. New applications may be conveniently installed from within the OVD administration console.
The administration console also offers administration delegation so that specified users may administer the system.

Microsoft Active Directory and authentication

User authentication may be facilitated with Windows Active Directory and also with any LDAP server.
CAS support has been added for authentication against CAS servers.

Microsoft or Linux file servers

• Windows or Linux (Samba) fileservers
• WebDAV embedded fileserver

Scalability

OVD has been designed to serve applications to thousands of users at the same time. Comprehensive tests and tuning have been performed to ensure excellent Linux & Windows® application servers load handling and directory management up to 50,000 users and more.

Bandwidth usage improvement

New settings and better cache management are available to reduce bandwidth usage.

Monitoring, logging, reporting, load-balancing

Detailed monitoring, logging and reporting of Windows and Linux application servers are provided to the OVD administrator.
Customizable load-balancing is available for Applications Servers.

Security & remote acess

Wan Internet & LAN accesses secured by SSL.
WAN access has been simplified with the OVD Gateway module: one IP address, one port.

And many others!

Other features include:

• Compatibility with Amazon's EC2 virtualization infrastructure
• Session recovery/reconnection
• Support for many languages and keymaps
• The OVD Application Server and Session Manager may be installed on a single server by using a dedicated DVD ISO image
• SSO-ready through our API

System Recommendation

• OVD Application servers for Linux applications: x86 servers w/multi-core or quad CPU w/1GB or more RAM. Count 1GB or more RAM per 15 concurrent end-users. Supported Host OS (32 or 64 bit): Ubuntu 10.04.*, RHEL 5.5, 6.0, Centos 5.5, 6.0, OpenSuSE 11.2, 11.3, SLES 11SP1.
• OVD Application servers for Windows applications: Windows 2003 (32 bit), 2008R2 (64bit) Server + Active Directory and Terminal Services on any hardware. 1GB or more RAM.
• Servers for OVD Session Manager: x86 server w/512MB or more RAM. Host OS (32 or 64 bit): Ubuntu 10.04.*, RHEL 5.5, 6.0, Centos 5.5, 6.0, OpenSuSE 11.2, 11.3, SLES 11SP1.
• Note about OVD ApS and SM servers: It is possible to install both OVD components on one PC for evaluation purposes. This configuration is not recommended for production environments
• Web Client: Oracle Java 1.6 (32 bit only) enabled browser: Firefox 2+, Internet Explorer 7+, any platform. Safari 5+ on MacOS. 512 MB RAM or more (1GB or more is recommended).
• Native Client: Windows® XP/7 or Linux plateform. 512 MB RAM or more (1GB or more is recommended)
• iOS 4.3/5.x client for iPad/iPhone
• Android 2.3+ Client for tablets and phones
• Network: 10Mbps or more LAN
• User directory servers: Active Directory, e-Directory/ZenWork and LDAP servers are currently supported.
• Fileservers: CIFS (Linux and/or Windows), embedded Ulteo WebDAV and CIFS servers

Minimum Hardware Requirements

• For a Session Manager:
  • Evaluations/POCs: Minimum prerequisites are 1 CPU core and 512MB RAM
  • Production environments: Ulteo recommends a minimum of 2GB RAM and 2 CPU cores
• For an Application Server (Linux or Windows®):
  • Evaluations/POCs: Minimum prerequisites are 1 CPU core and 1GB RAM
  • Production environments: Ulteo recommends a minimum of 4GB RAM and 2 CPU cores
• For a WebClient:
  • Evaluations/POCs: Minimum prerequisites are 1 CPU core and 512MB RAM
  • Production envrionments: Ulteo recommends 1GB RAM whenever possible or more
• If using the same machine to host the Session Manager, the Web Client and the Linux Application Server:
  • Evaluations/POCs: Minimum prerequisites are 1 CPU core and 1GB RAM
  • Production environments: Ulteo does not recommends to use this installation method for production environments

Want to give it a try? Download and install now!