Pano Logic announced today the release of Pano System 3.5, which adds support for Microsoft Hyper-V the alongside VMware vSphere.
Every new product release tells the story, not only do we get to learn about how a vendor’s marketing department wants others to see its products, but we also learn how that vendor sees its marketplace. Today’s release by Pano Logic of Pano System 3.5 is a case in point. The most significant new feature, certainly the one that Pano Logic are drawing the most attention to in Pano System 3.5 is support for Microsoft Hyper-V alongside VMware vSphere. It is interesting to see a startup like Pano Logic devoting its resources not to additional functionality, but instead to improving cross-platform compatibility. Pano Logic must be closely monitoring Microsoft’s market share in its target markets and recognizing an opportunity to squeeze out VMware View, and compete head-on with the likes of Quest vWorkspace and Kaviza VDI-in-a-Box in the SMB market.
Microsoft is seeing significant success with Hyper-V in markets where the low cost of Hyper-V receives far greater attention than the feature differential in VMware’s favor that is of greater value in large enterprise environments. That being the case it certainly makes sense for Pano Logic to establish a presence in this market now rather than focusing its resources on additional functionality at this stage. While the elimination of VMware vSphere Essentials licensing will shave $10 or so from the cost per seat of a Pano System deployment, this saving alone is unlikely to drive further sales. What is more likely to make a Pano System deployment on Hyper-V more attractive is the savings to be realized from not having to support multiple hypervisors in organizations that are standardizing on Hyper-V.
Even with the focus on Hyper-V, Pano Logic have not forgotten VMware. Pano System 3.5 now includes support for VMware ESX/ESXi 4.1 and vCenter Server 4.1. As well as providing improved idle time and disconnect timeout behavior, and closer integration with vCenter Server and View Connection Server. The 3.5 release also adds new capabilities for Pano Remote, a secure USB drive that enables end users to access their desktop virtual machines using any computer with an internet connection. Users who have been provided with multiple virtual desktops may now select a specific DVM when utilizing Pano Remote.
The full press release can be read here.