It’s not often you can corner a Product Manager in the kitchen and acquire twenty minutes of his time without complaint but that’s exactly what happened with Arjen van der Meulen yesterday. With the recent launch of PCoIP Management Console 3.1. and PCoIP Remote Workstation Card firmware 5.0.1 the post-launch quiet moment in his day must have left him vulnerable to water cooler conversation.
Q&A with Teradici Director of Product Management, Arjen van der Meulen
So Arjen, what’s the highlight of Management Console 3.1?
The answer to that is most definitely the ability to manage both zero clients and remote workstation cards through a single console now. Remote workstation card customers using the old Management Console 1.X can now upgrade to take advantage of all the capabilities of the Enterprise Edition through a Workstation Access subscription. That’s a long list of improvements including 24 x7 Teradici support, the ability to scale up to 20,000 devices, a far more intuitive and informative interface, multiple administrator accounts, remote device management and much more.
The most significant thing to know and love about PCoIP Management Console is that it can manage any brand of PCoIP Zero Client or PCoIP Remote Workstation Card.
That must have been a big change to Management Console Enterprise, how significant of a development project was it for the team?
This was a cool project for the team to work on both from a development perspective but also because we knew it would be meaningful to Teradici’s longest-standing customer bases – remote workstation card users. To make it work we had to change the interface and menu structure of Management Console, the way the licensing works under the hood, and then enable compatibility with the hardware so we needed to make updates to the firmware as well. Overall, it was a big team effort.
That’s great news for PCoIP Remote Workstation Card customers, but what about Zero Client customers with a Desktop Access subscription?
Besides the support for remote workstation card we have some generic features and fixes for all users of Management Console Enterprise. One of those is a brand-new license activation and deactivation web interface directly in the Management Console UI. I would recommend current users of Management Console go to the Teradici support site and discover all the updated features in the release notes.
You just told me what’s new in the current release, but what’s the one feature you would want to have included in that release but couldn’t?
It’s hard to narrow to one item but that would be the introduction of user roles, LDAP support and user auditing. The good news is the development team is currently working on these features and we are planning another release for after the summer.
PCoIP Zero Clients and Remote Workstation Cards will be easier to deploy and manage and that makes for operational efficiencies customers will appreciate.
Will any of these changes have an impact on our relationship with our OEM or ecosystem partners?
Actually, this is really great news for all of our ecosystem partners whether that’s one of our zero client or remote workstation OEMs, or our cloud ecosystem partners. These product enhancements strengthen the value customers can derive from their PCoIP deployment and the investment in our technology. PCoIP Zero Clients and Remote Workstation Cards will be easier to deploy and manage and that makes for operational efficiencies customers will appreciate.
It sounds like there’s a lot of value here for customers so why are Desktop Access and Workstation Access subscriptions included for some customers?
In December last year, we announced that every newly purchased PCoIP Zero Client and Remote Workstation Card will include a one-year Desktop Access or one-year Workstation Access subscription. These included subscriptions provide licensing only for the customer’s new PCoIP devices and for a period of 12 months.
To manage their entire deployment of new devices and previously installed ones through a single Management Console, IT Admins will want to have enough licenses to cover their entire deployment and will likely extend their support through an additional one or three-year subscription purchase.
Will the 60-day trial be updated soon to incorporate these updates and if I’m a PCoIP Remote Workstation Card customer, will that work for me too?
The good news is the free trial has already been updated so when customers request a trial, they are getting Management Console 3.1. This means both zero client customers and remote workstation card customers will have the opportunity to trial the full capabilities offered in Release 3.1. Customers already using the trial can upgrade to the latest version by going to the download section on our support website.
From a competitive perspective, how does Management Console Enterprise measure up?
The most significant thing to know and love about PCoIP Management Console is that it can manage any brand of PCoIP Zero Client or PCoIP Remote Workstation Card. So, for customers, that means they can take advantage of different feature sets and prices from our OEM partners and manage them all through one management console. With that and the ease of use of our Enterprise Edition interface, the winner is clear.
That’s the inside scoop on Management Console 3.1. We’re now off to corner the Cloud Access Software product manager to quiz her about a recent release that studios have been waiting for…stay tuned!
Learn more about the latest release of PCoIP Management Console 3.1 and PCoIP Remote Workstation Card firmware 5.0.1.
