Sphere 3D Corp. (ANY)

[derek32smith]

Know what you own: V3 Virtual desktop infrastructure appliance vs Glassware Windows application delivery

It is apparent that there is much confusion and misunderstanding about the critical differences between the V3 appliance and Glassware. Perhaps this will help

The V3 appliance is based on VMware View/Horizon and is a virtual desktop infrastructure solution (i.e. VDI). Per Sphere, Glassware is a Windows application delivery solution that does not require a hypervisor. It does not deliver a full Windows desktop like VDI, only the Windows applications you need.

In other words, it is a remote application delivery system aka terminal services, or RDSH as Microsoft calls it today. This was first offered by Microsoft in 1996.

The V3 appliance is a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution. It delivers a full Windows desktop delivery using VMware View/Horizon, the VMware solution that runs on the proprietary VMware ESXi hypervisor. This is the tech that is sold as the Novaglass system by Novarad.

Please read this Novarad marketing document again: https://ww1.novarad.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/NovaGlass_20.pdf

And read the original product document published by VMware on their partner site for V3 Systems describing the V3 VDI appliance:
http://www.square-it-consulting.com/wp-content/uploads/VMware-V3_Systems_Case_Study.pdf

The Novaglass document references virtual desktop or VDI at least a dozen times, in the first page alone! The document mentions VMware and its various products and technologies - VMware View, v-Sphere, v-Center, ESXi - more than 50 times. The document also makes extensive use of VMware copyrighted, boilerplate graphics to describe the solution. These are available for use by partners under the terms of the various partner agreements offered by VMware.

What is missing from the document? There is NOT a single reference to Sphere 3D or Glassware. Not a single one! They even claim that DCO is their own patented technology. A simple check with the US Patent Office web site shows it's not patented by either Sphere or Novarad.

What have Sphere execs said about this? Michael Keen, former Sphere VP Technology said publicly that Novaglass is based on View, not Glassware. Simon Bramfitt, Sphere CTO said that Glassware and the V3 appliance are not integrated. Peter Bookman, Head of Global Strategy said that Sphere could not provide LogIn VSI performance data for Glassware because it did not use a hypervisor. LogIn VSI only tests hypervisor based solutions. Glassware has no hypervisor. So, how does Novarad provide LogInVSI benchmark data? Simple, the solution is the hypervisor based VMware View/Horizon V3 appliance.

Please note that Glassware can NOT be mounted on the VMware View based hyper converged V3 appliance. Glassware is based on Windows Server, and it is contractually forbidden by VMware to mount a server instance on VMware View.

Hope this helps.