Attachmate Corporation has announced a multiplatform "X server" that connects remote Windows, Unix, Linux and Mac desktop users to graphical Unix-based applications. Attachmate's Reflection X Advantage version 2.0 is enhanced with Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) and Secure Shell (SSH) support, and features a new architecture designed to optimize performance for high-latency and low-bandwidth networks.
"This is the first commercial release of this as an 'orderable' product," Sam Morris, product marketing manager at Attachmate, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "We first introduced this technology to our maintained customers back in late 2007 and continue to make Reflection X Advantage 2.0 available to customers who hold maintenance agreements for our other Reflection X products, Reflection X version 14 and Reflection Suite for X version 14."
Reflection X Advantage helps organizations align with green computing standards and cut IT costs by extending the life and reach of existing applications and servers. When consolidating data center assets through server virtualization and the elimination of replicated servers, Reflection X Advantage helps organizations by providing remote application access for users who are no longer co-located with their Unix host system.
"Reflection X Advantage really is optimized for users in remote offices. It certainly supports traditional use in the way that traditional PC X servers operate but some of the core enhancements around the X server technology in Reflection X Advantage are targeted at users who are geographically distant from the Unix systems that they are connecting to and running applications from," Morris explains.
Offering access to the latest Linux desktops, Reflection X Advantage version 2.0 allows users to display GNOME and KDE desktops from a Windows PC, a Mac OS X workstation or another Linux workstation. Desktop sessions can be suspended and resumed, or transferred to another workstation seamlessly.
Additionally, a fault tolerance feature improves productivity by allowing users to recover X sessions that have been interrupted by workstation crashes or network outages. With high-latency and low-bandwidth optimization, Reflection X Advantage version 2.0 gives remote users reliable access to X applications.
Supporting mobile workers that may need to start a project in the office and then pick it up from a different location, collaborate with coworkers in other locations and share documents or application user interfaces in real time, Reflection X Advantage version 2.0 allows X applications to be launched, suspended, resumed, transferred and shared.
And, offering high level security, Reflection X Advantage version 2.0 includes the latest SSH and SSL/TLS encryption with a cryptographic module validated for FIPS 140-2, one of the U.S. government's top security standards.
To evaluate Reflection X Advantage version 2.0, go here.