NEC Moves the PC Into the Data Center with the Release of Virtual PC Center

NEC Thin Client System with NEC Virtual PC Servers Offers Unparalleled Multimedia User Experience; Increases Data Security While Reducing PC Support and Management Costs

Santa Clara, Calif.,- NEC Corporation of America, a premier provider of IT, network and identity management solutions, today announced the introduction of the NEC Virtual PC Center (VPCC), a complete thin client and server solution. NEC’s VPCC is the first thin client solution to truly replace the personal computer, supporting all existing PC applications with high quality multimedia delivery that replicates the familiar desktop environment. Moving the PC off of the desktop and into the data center ensures that an individual’s data resides securely in the data center. Using NEC’s VPCC, with virtualization software from VMware and a thin client operating system from Wyse Technology, enterprises large and small can realize substantial reductions in support and maintenance costs, resulting in a lower total cost of ownership as compared to traditional desktop PCs.

Though desktop PCs are incredibly productive for individual users and as application client workstations, they also come with a very high cost. Untrained end-users must often manage their own systems, and IT must provide costly help desk services to better support those end-users. IT must also provide numerous expensive software solutions on PCs to better prevent loss or theft of data.

NEC’s solution is the Virtual PC Center, a complete thin client personal computer product line with full PC functionality and including multimedia capability, designed to replace the desktop PC. The NEC solution offers a full virtual PC environment, combining the thin client device with NEC Virtual PC Servers and an NEC VPCC Management Server in the data center. The entire VPCC system is called “virtual” because a user can access any VPCC workstation and work as if using a traditional PC with its familiar Microsoft® Windows® desktop multimedia environment. Because it is compatible PC functionality, existing PC applications are supported so additional user training is not required.

“The extensive use of desktop PCs directly impacts the total cost to run and support PC applications,” said Dave Davenport, senior vice president, NEC Corporation of America. “It also may run a major security risk if some company data is not adequately protected on that desktop. The thin client architecture solves these problems, but is only viable if the multimedia problem is solved. NEC’s VPCC meets the multimedia requirement, supporting all PC applications. The result is a true alternative for the enterprise, with a radical decrease of the overall cost of enterprise personal computing by as much as 50 percent without compromising on desktop functionality.”

Thin client solutions are an effective PC alternative, better protecting enterprise data because the data is maintained on controlled servers in the data center and not on uncontrolled desktop PC hard disks. However, most traditional thin client solutions also come with a cost: they cannot support multimedia content. Common PC applications utilizing multimedia - such as computer-based training, corporate video messaging, voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephony solutions, and DVD or music playback - have not traditionally been supported on thin client architectures. Because the de-encoding of multimedia files is accomplished on the client-side with the NEC VPPC, the multimedia content can efficiently reach the thin client device through existing network bandwidth. The multimedia accelerator on the NEC US100 thin client device decodes the data at the desktop, ensuring PC-quality audio and video.

NEC Virtual PC Servers utilize another important NEC technology called the NEC SigmaSystemCenter™ management system. SigmaSystemCenter provides a unified and scalable management solution on top of the VMware® Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) that simplifies the NEC Virtual PC Server’s management and monitoring. NEC’s server heritage is evident in its management software technology, including built-in integration with the server hardware and virtual operating system platform, ensuring high availability. It also includes an easy-to-use interface to manage PC user session creation and monitoring, server utilization profiling, system policies, security, expandability, auditing, account management, deployment functionality, client brokering and more.

NEC customers are anticipating significant cost reductions due to their VPCC implementation. “By integrating NEC’s VPCC into our contact center and utilizing the management capabilities of SigmaSystemCenter, we anticipate a positive impact to ASI’s total cost of ownership,” said Benjamin Woo, vice president of sales and marketing, ASI System Integration. “Further, it ensures that our data will stay secure while still providing a comfortable user experience that will not decrease the productivity of our teams.”

For larger enterprise customers, SigmaSystemCenter also provides automatic load balancing of user sessions across multiple NEC Virtual PC Servers. A Storage Area Network (SAN) is added for load balance purposes, as well as to extend user storage capacity.

NEC US100 Thin Client
First announced in November of 2006, the US100 is the first thin client device to provide rich PC-quality high-speed video and audio processing delivering the next-generation in thin client technology. Improving space efficiency, the palm-sized device can be placed on the desktop or mounted behind the LCD screen. The US100 is powered by Wyse® Thin OS running on the ServerEngines® NetClient processor, along with Wyse’s multimedia acceleration enhancements.

“Wyse is pleased with the result of our collaboration with NEC,” said Ricardo Antuna, vice president of Business Development and Alliances for Wyse Technology. “The combination of the US100 hardware with our Wyse Thin OS provides an ideal solution for end-users looking for a complete PC experience with no compromises.”

NEC Virtual PC Server
The NEC Virtual PC Server is powered by NEC SigmaSystemCenter to manage VMware VDI client sessions, client workstations and hardware servers. The NEC Virtual PC Server comes in two hardware configurations: 20 or 50 users for each server. A customer can install one or more Virtual PC Servers to meet or exceed the total number of PC users. Each configuration is designed to provide the maximum end-user performance, with all necessary system software preinstalled.

“VMware VDI and NEC’s VPCC help to simplify IT administration, leverage existing computing investments, and respond faster to changing business demands,” said Brian Byun, vice president of global partners and solutions at VMware. “With VMware’s industry-leading virtualization software as the platform for VPCC, the system can be installed and fully operational in a shorter timeframe.”

NEC VPCC Management Server
The NEC VPCC Management Server provides centralized IT management interfaces and monitoring tools for the entire VPCC system through SigmaSystemCenter’s console. A dedicated server significantly simplifies PC administrative tasks compared to traditional desktop system management functions. Features such as reallocation of VPCC resources, addition of application software, bulk application of security patches, and automatic load balancing provide system administrators enhanced efficiency and flexibility.

Pricing and Availability
The cost between a straight change-over to VPCC when replacing desktops PC is about the same as compared to buying new desktops PC for the enterprise. However, NEC’s VPCC provides added features that cannot be achieved using a desktops PC, including lower servicing and support costs. As a result, organizations can expect a significant reduction in the total cost of ownership for VPCC, as compared to continuing to use traditional desktops PC over the life of the system.

The NEC Virtual PC Center is available now through selected resellers and direct from NEC Corporation of America.