ClearCube Technology announced general availability of version 5.6 of Sentral, its VDI Management System, a vendor-agnostic connection broker software to deploy and manage both physical and virtualized desktops for high-performance centralized desktop computing in heterogeneous enterprise IT environments. Sentral accommodates both power users who need the performance of a dedicated PC, as well as, knowledge or task workers that can be deployed within a VDI framework. Sentral offers IT administrators a single management framework to monitor and control their entire centralized infrastructure of computing assets and user types, dramatically reducing complexity, and ensuring the security, manageability and availability of VDI deployments.

Built on five generations of proven success within enterprise production environments, ClearCube's Sentral v5.6 delivers the enterprise-class capabilities required for traditional centralized desktop computing as well as virtual desktop management in one solution, including: connection brokering, virtual machine management, thin client management, dynamic resource allocation, load balancing, active health and monitoring, disaster recovery and support for a wide variety of back-end hardware and user access devices. Sentral v5.6 is the only virtual desktop solution to manage both the physical and virtual resources within heterogeneous environments, providing cross-platform support and giving customers the flexibility to deploy the right solution for the right user type, utilize any back-end hardware, end-point user access device or virtualization technology for desktop virtualization.

This latest version integrates support for ClearCube's break-through I9420 I/Port and the C7420 Fiber C/Port devices, enabling superior graphics performance, unlimited distance capabilities via PCoIP, enhanced USB peripheral support, and support for the Intel® vPro™-enabled systems. Providing robust scalability, reliability and performance, Sentral v5.6 is now fully packaged, licensed and available for purchase for virtual desktop management independent of ClearCube hardware.

"We have a complex environment requiring a centralized desktop computing solution that could provide 1:1 computing for our high-end power users while providing the management capabilities for our virtualized desktop environments," said Guy Fuller, director of information technology at Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group. "Moreover, we needed a solution that could provide forward support for multiple virtualization technologies as well as integration with our traditional systems management applications. Sentral offered a single management console that could do it all, giving us utmost manageability, flexibility and control."

"Virtualization technology is garnering a great deal of attention and has become part of the IT strategy of most companies," said Dan Kusnetzky, president and principal analyst of the Kusnetzky Group. "ClearCube has been an important player in several segments of the virtualization technology market and has helped many organizations implement their virtual desktop strategy. By making Sentral hardware-agnostic, as well as enhancing the product in several important ways, ClearCube is now in the position to extend that help to many other organizations."

"Today's enterprise requires solutions that can meet the many needs of a typical IT environment where different types of solutions are required for different types of users," said Rick Hoffman, president and CEO of ClearCube. "Desktop virtualization now offers another layer of complexity to the IT manager. As the pioneer of centralized desktop computing solutions with more than a decade of delivering its high performance solutions, ClearCube offers its expertise to companies who want to deliver virtual desktops to the end user."

The Most Comprehensive Solution for Virtual Desktop Deployment and Management

Key Benefits include:

• Proven Technology
• A One Stop Shop
• A Complete Solution
• No Vendor Lock-Down

Key Features include:

• Connection Brokering
• Virtualization Module
• Sentral Console
• Switching Module