Redwood City, CA-based desktop virtualisation company NComputing was ranked No 1 in enterprise client device shipments in Asia Pacific in in a newly published IDC report, the company announced on 22 October, 2010.

IDC’s Q2 2010 Worldwide Enterprise Client Devices Tracker ranked NComputing as the first in terms of Asia Pacific shipments at 25.2% share and fastest quarter on quarter growth at 50.2% (when combining the thin client and terminal client categories).

“In less than three years, we have deployed over 350,000 virtual desktops in the Indian subcontinent and over 100,000 in ASEAN region.”  said Manish Sharma, NComputing’s Vice President for Asia Pacific.

“We are proud of this achievement. It doesn’t just represent our success.  It also represents the success of our customers who are leading the world and providing the blue-print for successful desktop virtualisation deployment,” he added.

NComputing chief executive officer Stephen Dukker said, “To date, many of the large global PC and chip manufacturers have been barriers to the mainstream adoption of desktop virtualisation because of their economic interest and legacy investment in the old ‘PC per desktop’  centric IT infrastructure by maintaining artificially high prices.”

“NComputing’s dramatic success demonstrates the truly disruptive economics of virtual desktops when naturally priced; reducing all client related costs by 50% or more compared to traditional PCs.

“We are putting the ‘old guard’ on notice that desktop virtualisation is ready to go mainstream and  NComputing has and will continue to lead in this space and deliver on our promise of transforming the economics of computing,” Dukker added.

However, what does NComputing's virtual desktop solution actually do?

It's rather amazing how history comes full circle but not like a point on a wheel going round and round but more like a point on the thread of a screw which advances with every turn.

Back in the days of mainframe and minicomputers – i.e. in the 60s and 70s, all processing and storage was done on a centralised host connected to a number of input-output terminals with a keyboard and display screen, providing for interaction with human users.

These were often dubbed dumb terminals because they had no processing power or storage of their own but only had the circuitry to support input and output the host computer, the display and to accept keyboard input.

The interfaces used in the connection to the host computer were either proprietary to the manufacturer or a standard RS-232 communications port, with bus-type connection to a single host port or radial connections, as with RS-232, with each terminal connected to its individual port on the host.

The microcomputer or what's now called a “PC,” (Personal Computer)  thanks to IBM, changed all that from the end of the 1970s and put computing power and storage on people's desks, each with their own ports for printers, modems, scanners and other peripherals.

However, as companies and organisations started using many of these microcomputers, it not only became expensive to equip each of them with their own set of peripherals, operating systems and applications software but having company-related documents and data isolated on each of these personal silos was  also a logistical nightmare, which led to the development of computer networking, leading the the recentralisation of computing power and storage on servers in what was called client/server computing.

Meanwhile, minicomputers evolved from platforms with 8-bit processors, 64 kilobytes of memory and floppy disk storage to the present day PCs with 32- or 64-bit processors, four gigabytes of memory and even terabytes of hard disk storage, which is more than what some of the bigger mainframes back in the 60s and 70s had.

So in effect, PCs now have the processing power and storage capacity of mainframes, with all of that at one user's disposal and which quite often is underutilised.

This is where NComputing came in with its vSpace virtualisation software, which runs on Windows and Linux to effectively turn PCs into mini- or micro-mainframes and playing host to their own set of modern-day not-so-dumb terminals which NComputing calls “access devices,” each with no computing  power but with NComputing's dual-core, ARM-based Numo System-on-Chip (SoC) which interacts with Windows or Linux on the host to display rich multimedia and high-definition video on a monitor, while also managing the access device's memory, peripherals and interfaces.

However, they have the display, keyboard, mouse, printer, USB and other peripheral ports found on most PCs, and either an Ethernet or a USB port for interaction with the host PC, while vSpace handles the desktop display and remote activities from the user's keyboard and mouse through each the access device, enabling multiple users to simultaneous access a single operating system, either Windows or Linux.

NComputing offers three types of connectivity solutions. It's X-series comes closest to RS-232 connections and comprises of kits with a PCI card with multiple Ethernet ports, which plugs into a PCI slot in the PC, as set of access devices and a vSpace CD to go with it.

One X350 kit supports up to four users (one on the host PC and three on access devices), while two kits support up to seven users, while one X550 kit supports up to six users and two up to 11 users.

Both support display in standard 1280 x 1024 pixels and widescreen 1440 x 900 pixels resolution, while videos played on the host PC using standalone or web-based media players can be streamed and scaled up to 1920 x 1080 pixels high-definition display at full frame rates.

The L-series connect to the host PC's Ethernet port via a switch or router, enabling it to support up to 30 access devices.

The entry-level L130 has the most basic features with a PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, 1440 x 900 pixels display port and speaker output, while the mid-range L230 has all these plus a microphone port, as single USB 1.1 port and its display supports up to 24-bit colour depth.

The newest and top-of-line  L300 has all that the L230 has plus support for full-screen video, high-availability login, comes with rapid deployment tools, 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution, two USB 2.0 ports and with USB port for keyboard and mouse, instead of PS/2 ports.

The L-series of access devices consume between 3 and 5 watts of power, which helps reduce overall site power consumption.

The U-series is available only as the U170 kit, which supports up to two uses – i.e. one on the host PC and the other on an access device connected to the host through its USB port. The five-user U170 configuration supports up to five users via a four-port USB2.0 hub, while the 10-user configuration works via a chain of USB hubs.

This kind of desktop virtualisation solution represents the most disruptive change in IT economics since the PC and NComputing is making significant market inroads in the Asia Pacific and emerging markets which have been its fastest early adopters, thanks to its low entry costs, as well as 75% lower maintenance and 90% lower energy costs, which make it popular with education and public sector organisations, enterprises as well as small to medium businesses in different parts of the world.

Examples include the Thai TV3 television group which replaced 500 of its obsolete PCs with L-series access devices for use by its office workers, in kiosks for its newsroom shift workers and as shared terminals in human resources.

Another is the Renscheid school in Germany which deployed L-series and X-series access devices for teachers and students in its classrooms and computer labs. These had to work with its complex infrastructure of Linux servers and to meet its green initiatives, as each access devices consumes only 3% of the power consumed by a typical desktop PC.

NComputing solutions are also used in computer labs in Macedonia, factories in Michigan and in other countries.

Its L300 virtual desktop is being rapidly adopted in commercial enterprises as a result of features including full-motion multi-media playback and PC like performance, fast and simple deployment, and powerful management tools.

NComputing is involved in some of the world’s largest enterprise desktop virtualisation initiatives including Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), India, which is deploying over 31,000 NComputing Virtual Desktops across 2,200 locations in support of the Indian Government’s effort to deliver insurance and healthcare benefits to over 20 million employees.

NComputing's solution is already the de-facto standard for education in the majority of Indian states like Andhra Pradesh where 50, 000 virtual desktops are deployed in 5000 schools to benefit 1.8 million children.

The company recently announced success with Indian state education ministries of Punjab, Rajasthan and Bihar. NComputing technology has also been implemented by The Ministry of Education, Government of Punjab, Pakistan which recently deployed over 64,000 of the company’s virtual desktop devices in 4286 schools, benefiting 3.4 million students.

NComputing's desktop virtualisation solutions are used by 20 million users across 140 countries.