Double-Take reveals new virtual desktop software

Double-Take Software has recently revealed a new desktop virtualisation product that is specifically designed for the needs of small to medium sized businesses.

The technology is designed to deliver the benefits of a centralised computer system but without the high start up costs, that smaller businesses may find too expensive.

Double-Take Flex offers a system that stores data centrally and is then streamed to a user’s machine on start-up, and it also stores user data and profile settings.

Ian Masters, a sales director of Double-Take, said, "We've focused on small and mid-tier customers who are still looking for the benefits of desktop virtualisation, but are less likely to have the skills and the infrastructure for alternative solutions."

The software uses a single server to store central boot images and then sources these to a user’s computer. The advantage of this is that any updates only have to be applied to the server and not to every single PC. To use this system user’s just click on a master boot image and it loads, then to upgrade to a new version of windows you simply update the central image.

This system is ideal for a company with different departments that need different desktop profiles. For example staff from accounting would just be able to upload financing software whereas the IT department would be able to load diagnostic software.

Mr Masters added, "The whole point of virtual desktops is around cost. Provisioning, maintaining and replacing normal PCs is very manually intensive and therefore costly."

Therefore this new virtual desktop solution is a great piece of technology for emerging companies.