Leading Global Financial Institutions Deploy Leostream for Large-Scale Virtualizaton Success

WALTHAM, Mass., March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Leostream Corporation, a leading developer of virtual hosted desktop software, today announced that four of the world's largest financial institutions have used its Connection Broker to successfully deploy large-scale hosted virtual desktop infrastructure (HVDI). The vendor-neutral Leostream™ Connection Broker enabled these organizations to scale their HVDI effectively and to overcome a wide range of other challenges, including delivering a uniform end-user experience across disparate environments, preventing data loss, enabling unique remote access capabilities, and maximizing the ROI of existing technology investments.

The Leostream Connection Broker is the software management layer that ties desktop images in the data center to the appropriate users and end-user devices - thin clients, laptops, workstations or Web pages - delivering an experience as good as or superior to that of a conventional desktop. The Connection Broker is vendor-independent, providing hosted virtual desktop (HVD) support for VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, and Xen.org hypervisors, as well as for hosted applications and sessions, physical desktops, dedicated blades and other systems.

Global Financial Services Firm Included in Dow Jones Average

One global financial services firm, with operations in more than 60 countries and whose stock is included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, chose the Leostream Connection Broker to provide a range of desktop computing resources and applications to end-users. Leostream allowed the bank to consolidate their production end-user computing environments in the data center and manage them through a single portal.  

The bank's IT department knew that a successful HVD environment would require a smooth transition to a high quality end-user experience, so the deployment began by providing remote access to existing physical desktops. It later phased in Virtual Windows desktops and Citrix XenApp published desktops. This was done while utilizing the existing infrastructure for remote access, virtualization and system provisioning: an approach that minimized disruption to the bank's well-established IT processes.

This HVD strategy allowed the bank to tailor the selection of thin clients to the requirements of different divisions and departments. Sun Ray thin clients have been combined with access from Windows machines, Macintosh computers and the Web, providing end-users with the same desktop experience regardless of the client device or access mode. The bank's globally distributed user base now shares a common path to access the resources they need to get their jobs done, independent of how they connect or their location.

The bank was also able to preserve and optimize existing IT investments in Citrix Presentation Server/XenApp, Sun Solaris/Sun Ray and other technologies, with the Leostream Connection Broker serving as the vital management layer in a HVDI deployment now serving 10,000 end-users.  

Commerzbank AG

For the North American division of Commerzbank AG, security and flexibility were the primary drivers for the move to a HVD model. The solution needed to provide end-users with seamless, trouble-free log-in and "anywhere" access, while adhering to industry security standards, including smart card-based authentication. Leostream worked with partners Wyse and IdentiPHI to implement a smart card solution that controls hosted desktop access based on user location and identity. Leostream's vendor-independent approach allowed the connection brokering platform to support IdentiPHI's SafeSign Identity Client, multi-factor authentication and digital certificates for Wyse thin clients. As a result, lost devices are no longer a major security concern, and the solution effectively mitigates data loss risks. The HVDI now serves all 500 users in Commerzbank's North American operations.  

One of the Top Three Banks in the United Kingdom

This bank required a HVDI solution to accommodate a variety of thin clients and deliver a uniform experience across disparate end-user use case scenarios. These ranged from HVDs for basic computing tasks to high performance trading stations. With the Leostream Connection Broker, the bank was able to transition smoothly to virtual desktops, while offering "tweak and tune" policy management. This has allowed IT to meet diverse conditions and test prototypes of new configurations for end-users without disturbing existing environments. A successful trial led to the virtualization of 5,000 desktops, demonstrating the robust scalability of the Leostream Connection Broker. The bank anticipates expanding to tens-of-thousands of end-users in the future. Additionally, Leostream's vendor-independent technology ensures the institution will not be locked into any particular vendor, enabling it to adopt different technologies if the need arises.

Major Global Financial Services Provider with Extensive International Presence

With a significant presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, this financial service provider needed to create a HVDI that would handle a wide range of end-user environments, regardless of location. With the Sun Ray Solaris system as the primary platform for thin clients, the institution wanted to expand user flexibility, mixing and matching desktop assignment models for a full range of capabilities, while utilizing Sun Ray server switching for automatic resiliency and scalability. The Leostream Connection Broker facilitated the effort with built-in mechanisms for such tasks as clustering brokers and automating the Sun environment. The HVDI now encompasses thousands of desktops, providing fully-featured, high-performance desktop integration to meet a diverse range of end-user needs.

"From data security to compliance to diverse end-user environments, the financial industry is one of the most demanding and challenging when it comes to adopting new technology," said Michael Palin, CEO of Leostream. "That so many leading global financial companies have enlisted Leostream to ensure success in virtualization speaks to the unique and powerful qualities of our Connection Broker and the need for a vendor-independent approach. From limited proof of concepts and trials to actual large-scale VDI deployments, our technology is proven to perform, simplifying the deployment and management of complex virtual environments. Such 'real-world' examples continue to distinguish the Leostream Connection Broker as the foremost vendor-independent technology of its kind."    

About Leostream

Leostream (http://www.leostream.com) provides the critical connection-broker technology required for enterprises to achieve successful large-scale desktop virtualization implementations. The Leostream Connection Broker is the industry's most widely deployed vendor-independent connection broker, enabling enterprises to integrate the complex array of clients, back-end systems and protocols required for successful virtualized desktop deployments. Hundreds of large enterprises in financial services, healthcare, government and other sectors rely on the Leostream Connection Broker to "make desktop virtualization work" and deliver the best end-user experience. Leostream is based in Waltham, Mass.

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SOURCE Leostream Corporation