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New features include beefier blades, improved connection management in CMS 4.0
IN THE YEAR SINCE WE reviewed its firstgeneration product (infoworld.com/511), ClearCube has pushed its blade workstation architecture concept even further on both the hardware and software fronts, and we like the results.
ClearCube pioneered the blade-based workstation. An I/Port sits on every user's desk, coupled to a display, keyboard, mouse, and USB-based peripherals. The actual workstation is located on a blade in a centrally managed rack in the datacenter.
This architecture's impact on adds, moves, and changes is obvious (simply swap a card without ever sending a technician out the door), but it also boasts better security, reliability, and longterm cost savings. For installations in which workstation uptime is critical, ClearCube is a godsend.
Gleaming the ClearCube
ClearCube's new I/Ports, C/Ports, and workstation cards looked great when they arrived at our test lab at the Advanced Network Computing Laboratory (ANCL) in sunny Honolulu. The desktoporiented C/Port modules are still fanless and can talk back to the blade's brain counterparts as far as 200 meters over CAT5.
On top of these, ClearCube added the missing component it needed to run a connection over truly long distances: Microsoft Remote Desktop. The tricky part here is that Microsoft Terminal Server functions by taking a limited resource and slicing it thinner and thinner with each additional client. ClearCube manages this with a high-density back end, bolstered by grid-style CPU pooling that alleviates the problems inherent in Terminal Server's timesharing scheme.
Users' desktop setups...