| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Redwood City, California, USA |
| Key people | Raj Dhingra (CEO) Stephen Dukker (Chairman) Will Poole (co-Chairman) |
| Employees | Approximately 200 |
| Website | www.ncomputing.com |
NComputing is a desktop virtualization company that manufactures hardware and software to create virtual desktops (sometimes called zero clients or thin clients) which enable multiple users to simultaneously share a single operating system instance.
NComputing, based in Redwood City, CA is a privately held for-profit company with offices in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Korea, Poland, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom; and resellers around the world.[1]
Contents |
In 2003, Young Song, a former VP at eMachines, met German entrepreneur Klaus Maier (formerly CEO of hydrapark), who had spent more than ten years developing the core software on which NComputing is based.[2] They formed a team to develop the complementary hardware in Korea, while the software was written in Poland and Russia. After they successfully launched the product and reached $10M revenue in two years, the two founders decided to move its headquarters to Silicon Valley. Stephen Dukker, former chairman of eMachines, joined NComputing in August 2006, to lead the company.[3]
Dukker introduced NComputing to venture capitalists and technology journalists in September 2006 at DEMOfall 06.[4] By October 2006, NComputing had raised $8 million from Scale Venture Partners (formerly known as BA Venture Partners).[5] In January 2008, the company raised a $28 million series B round of financing,[6] led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Menlo Ventures with participation from Scale Venture Partners and South Korea’s Daehong Technew Corp.
The company was founded in 2004 and is the fastest growing desktop virtualization company in the world with over 20 million daily users in 140 countries. It has deals with 40,000 education and business organizations in 140 countries[7] including 5,000 school districts in the United States. NComputing has shipped more than three million units overall,[8] including 180,000 seats to provide one computing seat for every K–12 student in the country of Macedonia.[9] NComputing sells its solutions through value-added resellers around the world.[10] As of 2010, the company has 200 employees worldwide.[11]
The combination of NComputing hardware (access devices, thin clients, zero clients) and virtualization software (vSpace desktop virtualization software) use the excess computing capacity of one PC or server to create multiple virtual desktops.[7]
The vSpace software allows multiple simultaneous user accounts to run on a single operating system instance. The access devices connect each user’s keyboard, monitor, and mouse to the shared host. Each NComputing access device has ports for a keyboard, monitor, and mouse, but does not contain a CPU nor memory.[7] vSpace can either be deployed alone or in concert with other virtual desktop infrastructure software solutions (including Citrix, VMware and Microsoft).
The company offers three product lines, the X-series, L-series, and U-series, as well as an OEM chip.
X-series access devices connect via CAT 5 cable to a PCI card that is installed in a shared PC. The technology supports up to two PCI cards. The maximum distance between the PC and an access device is 10 m (33 ft). The X-series comes in kits which include one PC card and several access terminals, depending on the specific product.[12]
In a test published by Computer Aid International in April 2009 and conducted by three African universities, the X300 turned out to be the preferred solution when setting up computer labs.[13]
Unlike the X-series, the NComputing L-series does not use a PCI card. L-series access devices connect each user’s keyboard, mouse,USB foot Padle and monitor back to the shared PC over standard Ethernet cables through a router or switch. An entry-level server supports approximately 30 users.[14] The L-series comes in kits that include NComputing’s vSpace software and one access device.
The U-series are the simplest of all to connect, because they connect into USB ports on the host computer, and thus no network switches or PCI cards are required. USB has an inherent distance limt.
NComputing’s vSpace Server virtualization software, included with the hardware, creates the virtual desktops in the shared PC by dividing the computer's resources into independent sessions that give each user their own PC experience.[7] The vSpace software uses the company’s proprietary display and communications protocol ("UXP") to communicate between the shared computer and the user stations. UXP serves a similar purpose as Microsoft’s RDP and Citrix’s ICA.
Linux is supported through a version of vSpace Server for Linux software. Currently, NComputing offers support for Ubuntu 10.04.3 32-bit and 64-bit for the L300 and Ubuntu 10.04.2 32-bit for the X350. The vSpace Server software and hardware clients require registration after 30 days for product upgrade notification. [15]
Windows is supported through a version of vSpace Server for Windows software. The supported versions of Windows include: Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2, Windows XP SP3 (32-bit); Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Vista SP21(32-bit); Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows MultiPoint Server 2011, Windows 7 SP1 (both 32- and 64-bit). The vSpace Server software and hardware clients require registration after 30 days for product upgrade notification.[16]
InfoWorld's 2010 Green 15 Award[18]
PC Quest Social Impact Award 2009[19]
CES Innovations 2009 Design and Engineering Awards honoree — Computer Peripherals 2009[20]
Tech Museum of Innovation Economic Development Award Laureate 2008[21]
Deloitte Silicon Valley Technology Fast 50 Rising Star 2008[22]
Frost & Sullivan Green Excellence Award — Thin Clients 2008[23]
Gartner “Cool Vendor” — Client Computing 2008[24]
District Administration Readers’ Choice Top 100 2007–2008[25]
VAR Business Gold 5-Start Partner Program Winner 2008[26]
IT World Canada "Top 5 Business to Watch" 2008[27]
EXPOCOMM Mexico 1st Place — Best Solution for Small Business 2008
Red Herring Top 100 Startups in North America 2008[28]
Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award — Computing Systems 2007[29]
Silicon Valley Business Journal Emerging Technology — Green & Clean Finalist 2007[30]
CeBIT Server-Based Computing Award 2006
NComputing competes with traditional thin client companies such as Wyse, and Hewlett-Packard.
In the education market, NComputing competes with other PC sharing solutions such as Userful, and student laptop solutions such as OLPC’s XO laptop and Intel’s Classmate PC.