Teradici, a Burnaby company specializing in desktop virtualization, has partnered with Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) to provide a new cloud-based Desktop as a Service (DaaS) called Amazon Workspaces that eliminates desktop processors.
While it won't kill the personal computer for home use, Amazon WorkSpaces will eliminate the need for computer towers in many businesses and organizations.
Working with VMware Inc. (NYSE:VMW), Teradici developed PC over Internet Protocol (PCoIP) software and a chip that, when embedded in computer monitors, eliminates the need for a desktop tower in businesses and organizations that have multiple workstations. Each workstation becomes nothing more than a keyboard and computer screen. Data is transferred between those work stations and a main server as pixels, rather than as binary data.
Because pixels, not data, move between office screens and the server, it is faster. One of the biggest benefits, however, is portability. Users can install desktop virtualization applications that allow their desktops to be called up from virtually anywhere and on any number of devices.
"We have a lot of customers in the high-end work station space – like movie studios, TV studios, trading floors, a lot of auto-motive and aerospace companies," Teradici CEO Dan Cordingley, a former general manager for Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC), told Business in Vancouver.
Teradici chips that enable the transfer of pixels have already been embedded in one million computer screens and devices by most of the world's largest computer hardware makers.
Teradici, which was just named to Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 list in 12th place, has grown from a headcount of 160 a year ago to 210 today, and recently opened an office in Santa Clara, where it employs another 30 people.
In addition to eliminating the desktop tower, the Teradici virtualization also allows users to access their work computers from home, and nothing moves between their home computer and business computer but pixels – something that addresses a growing concern about data security.
"IT people love it because nothing's leaving the data centre," Cordingley said. "That's a huge selling proposition of virtual desktops."
