Products such as Quest vWorkspace are often classified as “connection brokers”, for accessing and managing virtual desktops (VDI).  What you might not know is that one can do quite a bit with vWorkspace Desktop Edition, even if one doesn’t have any virtualization infrastructure. 

The following features are well suited for the physical desktops companies currently have today, as well as the virtual desktops they might be planning to deploy:

• Delegated Administration - the vWorkspace Management console can be organized by location/company/department… and administrative control of each object on the console can be delegated to the appropriate IT Personnel. For example, perhaps helpdesk personnel should only be able to remote control users desktops and reboot their PC, whereas 2nd level support may install software, and 3rd level support can use every feature of the vWorkspace Management Console. 
• User Profile Management - Delivers administrator authorized user customizations onto physical or virtual desktops (XP, Vista, 2003 or 2008) without using Roaming Profiles.  This decreases logon times, provides a stable user environment and reduces helpdesk calls.
• MSI Package Deployment - administrators can deploy, update and uninstall MSI packages on desktops from the vWorkspace Management Console.  The Quest vWorkspace Tools for the Managed Desktop (pntools.msi) can even be pushed to individual, multiple or all of the PCs in one’s environment from the vWorkspace Management Console.
• Desktop Management - Administrators can log users off, reboot their PCs, put PCs into sleep mode, wake up PCs that are in sleep mode, shut down or reboot a PC, view and optionally kill processes running on PCs and remote control end users.
• Remote Contol - administrators and helpdesk personnel can remote control user’s desktops to assist them when they require help.  The administrator can share the desktop of the end user, so they can both see what’s happening.
• Secure Remote Access via Quest Web Access and SSL Gateway - This allows for remote access to any corporate desktop, seamless application or even Microsoft App-V virtualized applications from a web browser or thin client and SSL.
• RDP Graphics Acceleration - when users logon remotely, their desktops or seamless applications can be accelerated with the “optional” Experience Optimization Pack - EOP.  Anyone who’s remoted into their corporate desktop via RDP knows that the performance is lackluster.  This accelerates the graphics and reduces the required bandwidth.  Actually all of the EOP features are available for physical PCs, i.e. Multimedia Redirection, Bi-Directional Audio, Local Text Echo and Graphics Acceleration.
• USB Redirection - Full support for USB Devices when connecting remotely to a PC.
• Task Automation - Administrators can schedule automated tasks such as, MSI Package Deployment, Power Management (logon, logoff, shutdown, reboot, sleep, wake-up…), copy files, run scripts…
• Client Settings - Specify via policy which RDP Virtual Channels may be used, for example, clipboard, disk drives, sound, microphone, Multimedia Redirection, Graphics Acceleration…
• Universal Printer Driver - Users logging on via RDP or EOP from a Windows vWorkspace Client can print with full functionality to any printer.  Users accessing a remote PC via non-Windows thin client can even print to network printers via the Universal Printer Driver.
• U3 vWorkspace Client - clients can run a full featured Windows vWorkspace AppPortal Client for remote access to their PC without having to install it, i.e. from a USB Stick.
• Brokering - of course, vWorkspace can broker connections to user’s Physical PCs, just like it can for Virtual Desktops.  Brokering and load balancing of Terminal Services sessions and applications is also available in vWorkspace Enterprise Edition.

So is Quest vWorkspace Desktop Edition a connection broker?  Absolutely, but we also like to think of it as suite for enterprise desktop management and remote access.

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