Splashtop for Business Starts Fast
With its recent introduction of Splashtop for Business, Splashtop has completed its transition from the instant-on movement it championed when it was still called DeviceVM to a global, enterprise-ready purveyor of management and remote access solutions for mobile devices and BYOD environments. As CEO and co-founder Mark Lee puts it, "We're looking at a consumerization play."
Based on customer reaction to date, it looks like Splashtop has hit a nerve. Since the beginning of August, the company has provided prospective users with preview versions of Splashtop for Business via its Early Access program, and according to a release, in just a few months, an "astounding" 10,000 businesses joined the program.
The new product is showing its versatility to customers, who are using it for a wide range of applications, such as a mobile VPN alternative, a supercharged remoting protocol, a VDI extension, and for high-performance remote 3D graphics access. It also supports a mobile interactive white board, and is further employed to "tabletize" Office, Outlook and other corporate apps.
The product's list of features is also extensive, including SSL encryption deployment, one-hour deployment times, support for existing apps on mobile devices, pooling, Active Directory integration, and optimal bandwidth use on 3G, 4G, and Wifi networks.
Clearly, Splashtop is on a roll. The company has some 10 million users, it is used my most major PC players, and its new Splashtop for Business offering is inexpensive and user friendly, even if it requires some work to set up. Lee touts the new product's high performance and says it outperforms current VPN, RDP, VNC and Citrix-based solutions.
He says he met with Citrix chief Mark Templeton about a year ago, and while he would like to find a way to work with Citrix, he believes the company is adamant about widely implementing its ICA protocol. "We don't want to get into a protocol war," says Lee. "It's all about optimizing end points, not just remote access."
Splashtop for Business is a welcome change for IT shops that are increasingly shouldering the heavy burden of mobility and BYOD. That is because it combines high performance and its intuitive user interface with a management console. "As the only solution in the marketplace with broad, platform support, including iOS, Android, and Windows 8, Splashtop is the perfect bridge for users to access their data and programs while ensuring interoperability," Lee says.
Splashtop for Business can be purchased at the Splashtop Web site. Pricing begins at $2,400 for up to 25 seats as an introductory offer.
Posted by Bruce Hoard on 11/27/2012 at 12:48 PM