Pano Logic, one of our preferred vendors has just released Generation 2 of their amazing Zero client cube. What makes their products unique is that they don’t have a CPU, RAM or firmware in their cubes, yes they really are maintenance free and a ZERO compared to their zero client competitors that really aren’t true zeros. The Pano cube is a device which extends the computer bus across the LAN so that none are needed. It always worked well but lacked native DVI support and had, not surprisingly, slightly choppy full screen video. Gen. 2 with the new, version 4.0 free broker software provides two native DVI ports and better video. Very nice.
On the other hand, if you need remote offices to work natively from your data center, then thin clients offer a better solution. But for 90% of users who work inside of the LAN, the Pano is certainly cost effective and worth taking out for a trial spin.
Interestingly, the Citrix Xen hypervisor platform will be soon supported, although the press releases saying that it will support XenDesktop has to be wrong. I think they mean the free XenServer which makes this a compelling capability. In addition, they support the great VMware ESX/ESXi and the not-so great (IMHO) Microsoft Hyper-V. Check it out.
