Cameron Sturdevant, technical director of eWeek's test labs, recently reviewed the Connection Broker 6.3 and found it an ideal solution for hosted virtual desktop deployments that need flexible integration capabilities and streamlined management.

In the review, Cameron says:

"The Connection Broker fits into a broader VDI implementation as a virtually transparent facilitator for end-user access. For desktop administrators, it is a powerful ally in melding policy, usage and authorized access in a single, easily managed tool."

Commenting on set up, configuration, and policy management, he continues:

"As with any broker, there was a lot of setup to be done after the relatively simple Connection Broker appliance installation. I used the demo appliance that is available in .OVF format. It literally took just moments to install the appliance in my VMware vSphere 4 environment. While there is a lot of policy that needs to be supplied to get the system up and running, for IT managers who are already familiar with the concepts and practices of using a broker, it shouldn't take that long to get up to speed on Leostream's Connection Broker."

"The amount of setup and policy development time has almost nothing to do with technology and everything to do with 1) the highly personalized nature of desktop systems and 2) the fact that life cycle issueswhich are easy to ignore in server virtualizationare front and center for virtual desktop implementations. The Leostream Connection Broker makes it fairly easy to translate the intensely important questions of what happens to a virtual desktop when a user is finished with it for the day into actionable policy. I was able to easily assign persistent desktops to high-value users while pools of desktops used by routine knowledge workers were reverted to a pristine snapshot at the end of the day."

Read the entire review here.

Sturdevant also provides a detailed slide show of his Leostream test deployment in action here, and an analysis of VDI in this follow-on eWeek article: VDI Vies to Host Client Workloads

• Click here to learn more about the 6.3 release.
• Download our 30-day free trial to test the Connection Broker here
• Set-up, training, and specific configuration scenarios are available on our training page.
• For further information, please visit www.leostream.com or contact us at here.

Thank you for your interest in Leostream.

--The Leostream Team