Introduction of Virtual Open Desktop

The users desktop and data is hosted in our secure datacentre, the user simply connects using “thin client” technology across the internet.

Companies worldwide have been hosting their emails and websites for years but what about your business operating system and applications?

Whether you are looking for a low cost application and data storage rental avenue or a new system or upgrade from a Windows platform; the Virtual Open Desktop will cater for all your business system needs.

The move from your legacy windows system to our fully hosted platform coudnt be easier – we handle everything from end to end and can typically migrate up to 25 users in just one day.

What’s Included?

Virtual Open Desktop delivers a complete business productivity solution based on Open Office, Thunderbird email and FireFox web browser. Everything is hosted centrally by Alchemy Systems and delivered through the internet. Data is protected and kept private since each customer has a separate virtual machine and their data is backed up to an offsite location.

The solution includes either a low power IGEL Universal Desktop or a lightweight Lenovo Laptop so that customer hardware is kept efficient, simple, robust and easy to support remotely.

During a recent survey Gartner found that 99% of users only use 10% of the functionality of their operating systems and business application.

A typical user will require for their work

• Document creation application
• Spreadsheet application
• Presentation application
• Access to the corporate systems typically now via a web page
• Email application
• The company’s ERP, CRM and finance systems

The Virtual Open desktop provides all of this and much more. But more importantly it removes the need for a local server, physical hard to support desktops, the need for virtually any onsite support and provides you with a fully managed IT infrastructure that can be accessed from anywhere 24 hours a day.

We provide same day swap out should a device become defective and for sites larger than 3 users, we provide an onsite hot-spare, and should one fail you simply unplug , re-plug and you’re up and running with ZERO need for IT support in less than 30 seconds.

Why OPEN SOURCE?

Below you’ll find a comparison of "open and closed" source to help you understand what the terminology really means to you...

Closed Source

Under the closed source model, source code must be hidden from the public and competitors who might otherwise reproduce, study or modify the code, either to resell the product, learn from the product or for other reasons.

Software companies that follow the closed source model see it as a way to protect their products from software piracy or misuse, from reverse engineering and duplication, and to maintain competitive advantage and vendor lock-in.

Closed source software usually is developed and maintained by a team who produces their product in a compiled executable state, which is what the market is allowed access to. Microsoft, the owner and developer of Windows and Microsoft Office, along with other major software companies, have long been proponents of this business model.

Open Source

The open source model allows for any user to view and modify a product's source code. Organizations and individuals that adhere to this model, believe that the benefit that they gain from improvements to their software provided by the community of software developers is more important than protecting their competitive advantage. Common advantages cited by proponents for having such a structure are expressed in terms of trust, acceptance, teamwork and quality.

Most of the open source software is licensed under what is often termed a "copyleft" license [a term which emphasizes the license's reversal of the principles of copyright.

Increasingly, open source software is developed by commercial organizations. In 2007, Gartner noted that 37,000 of the 38,000 recent patches in the Linux kernel were created by developers directly paid to develop the Linux kernel. This trend has accelerated over time ensuring the quality of open source software now exceeds that of its "closed source" equivalent.

My Applications

Customers can work with Microsoft documents due to the excellent document format support from Open Office. In fact, the default document format for read and write can be set to Microsoft.

Customers wanting to have additional corporate applications such as SAP, Netsuite or Salesforce.com can access them using the included Firefox web browser. This allows a small or medium sized business to have state of the art IT for a very low cost.

My Questions

As an IT manager, small business owner or IT co-coordinator you’ll be asking?

• What is open source?
• But we use windows?
• Isnt open source code open to the world?
• Will my applications work on it?
• How is it supported?

We have come to a cross roads in technology, were physical devices, the internet and virtual devices are merging together. The reality is that users and IT managers just want to provide a service and the community as a whole is becoming less bothered about the product or brand and more about what features can be provided. This is where open source really comes into its own providing 100% of the functionality required for a fraction of the cost.

Virtual Open Desktop is based upon “Commercial Open Source Technology”

• The vendor gives its software away for free, and a charges a service fee for support.
• The purchaser finds that some aspect of the software needs to be modified, and makes the appropriate modifications freely.
• The purchaser then freely gives the software to another potential purchaser, who agrees in turn to purchase support from the vendor.

This model has proved very successful, as witnessed in the Linux community. Increasingly, open source software is developed by commercial organizations. In 2007, Gartner noted that 37,000 of the 38,000 recent patches in the Linux kernel were created by developers directly paid to develop the Linux kernel. This trend has accelerated over time ensuring the quality of open source software now exceeds that of its “closed source” equivalent.

• SUPPORT - Our engineers provide 100% support both locally and remotely and ensure you can maintain a 99.9999% end user operating uptime.
• ENVIRONEMENT - The desktop provides a similar experience to Microsoft windows which can be picked up in just a few minutes.
• APPLICATIONS - ANY application that can run in a “closed source” environment (windows, SUN etc) can also run under an “open Source” (Linux) Environment. For further details on this see the “my Applications tab” above.
• COST – Reduce you IT Spend by up to 80%

Prices

Simplicity itself...FIXED IT Cost per month per user with NO MINIMUM number of DEVICES

Fixed Desktop

• Price £15.99* per month per person on a 1 year
• Price £13.99* per month per person on a 2 year
• Price £9.99* per month per person on a 3 year

Includes a 17" screen. Larger screen sizes on application.

Mobile Device

Web Book 10" screen mobile device.

• Price £34.99* per month per person on a 1 year
• Price £29.99* per month per person on a 2 year
• Price £24.99* per month per person on a 3 year

Full 3g device with 14" Screen

• Price £49.99* per month per person on a 1 year
• Price £44.99* per month per person on a 2 year
• Price £39.99* per month per person on a 3 year
• Larger screen sizes on application.

Set Charges and Options

Included

• Onsite implementation of the devices
• connection of up to 1 printer per device (subject to the printer being supported)
• Configuration of email, web and office applications, user names and logins.
• ½ Hour training for users on environment and support services
• WEEE – Removal and recycling of existing devices
• Up to 1gb of storage per user (Collectively shared)
• Web based access to desktop and files

Additional Services

• Data migration from a local server to our data centre and rights configured for access (Bespoke Service)
• Data Migration from a local desktop to the hosted desktop £19.99 per device
• Configuration of a specific windows application to run on the hosted desktop (Bespoke service)
• Migration of a windows server application from your local server to our data centre (linux or windows) (Bespoke service)
• Hosted Exchange (Bespoke Service)
• Hosted Sharepoint (Bespoke Service)
• Email and web content filtering (Bepoke service)
• For site under 5 users purchase of an onsite “hot spare”

The solution is provided as a fully managed service and is scalable from 1 user to in excess of 50,000 users. It is ideal for small business, education, branch offices and any business looking to reduce IT spend.

For sites with over 5 users we provide an onsite “hot spare” for instant desktop replacement, with no technical configuration required.

The solution is provided as a fully managed service and is fully inclusive of the device, support and installation. All services are subject to end user passing a credit check and eligibility criteria which is available on request.