Workstation group offers single license for HP Z Central and Teradici CAS to offer more remote options across desktop, cloud, Mac, Windows and Linux.
Last month HP completed its acquisition of Teradici, a specialist in remote graphics technology. This presented HP with Teradici CAS, a remote desktop software that works with many different types of workstations (desktop, virtual and cloud), uses the mature PCoIP protocol and has a big focus on colour accurate ‘lossless’ image quality.
HP has now followed on with the launch of a new subscription offering that gives customers access to both Teradici CAS and its own HP Z Central software for $240 per concurrent user per year. This includes Teradici CAS Manager and PCoIP Agent and Client and HP Z Central Connect and HP Z Central Remote Boost Sender / Receiver.
As far as functionality is concerned, there is a fair bit of crossover between HP Z Central and Teradici CAS. Both can be used to broker pools of workstations but, for HP, the emphasis is on desktops, while Teradici is more focused on virtual / cloud.
Christian Jones, HP’s business planning manager of ZCentral and Edge solutions, pointed out there are benefits for both sets of customers.
For existing Teradici customers, he explained that HP Z Central will offer remote access to desktop workstations that might be trapped in offices or racks. Users will also be able to schedule and share pools of physical workstations and remotely manage them in a similar way one would a virtual machine. HP Z Central also gives access to built-in collaboration tools that allows teams to share screens.
For existing HP Z Central customers, Teradici CAS will bring support for Apple Macs and provide access to cloud workstations from the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Google which can be provisioned automatically and turned off when not in use.
In the long-term, we expect HP plans to take the best from HP Z Central and Teradici CAS and consolidate them into a single application. While the company is remaining tight lipped for now, Jones did speak of an ‘accelerated joint roadmap of development’ that will be coming out over time.
The company has also stated that by 2023, Z by HP workstations will no longer include a license for HP ZCentral Remote Boost. This is significant news as HP has been bundling this software with its workstations for over ten years.
HP has also announced that it is working with Nvidia to combine HP Z workstations with Teradici CAS and Nvidia Omniverse Enterprise to support real-time simultaneous collaboration for design teams.
The idea is that an Unreal Engine designer in Chicago, a Revit designer in London, and a Rhino designer in Mexico City, can collaborate fluidly and intuitively on the same project in real time. Read our Omniverse article to find out more.
HP also announced that with the purchase of a qualifying Z by HP workstation, users can access a three-month trial of Nvidia Omniverse Enterprise (two Creator licenses, four Nucleus licenses, ten Reviewer licenses – a $2,250 value) and three-month trial of Teradici CAS (up to fifty licenses – a $3,000 value).
