Raspberry PIs are extremely popular among the hobbyist, DIYs and the OEMs thanks to their low cost and versatile design.For a company like Ncomputing, who not only sell the hardware, but have their propriety virtualization platform vSpace, it makes sense to utilize the Raspberry PI instead of making their own hardware, and that's the direction they seem to be taking.
Traditionally, Ncomputing had their own hardware for a very long time, and it worked for them ( and they still do, though the new models are PI-based). Take L300 for instance - the evergreen, never changing model with a 10/100 Network connection that's been the best seller for more than 10 years, off course there have been firmware revisions, but the hardware remained the same. It's a technological marvel that continues to be a top seller in 2021, with 10/100 ( doesn't hog your 1G network) and SOC. When all the computing is happening on the server, you need only the bare minimum on a thin client and L300 has it.
But then you need to upgrade some time, right? The very nature of IT is changing, upgrading, and staying on the cutting edge. It's difficult to justify the purchase of a device that's been unchanged for at least a decade.
This is where Raspberry PI makes a Point. Ncomputing focuses on the software and uses the latest Raspberry PI. After all, At the heart of Ncomputing's excellence and success is their software- vSpace Server. This is what separates them from dozen of other thin client vendors who only make the hardware NC has their virtualization platform. This worked for them so well, and it's understood that they would like to put their energy into software more than the hardware design. And what better than Raspberry PI for this customization.
As of date, NComputing has only 3 non-PI models ( L300, L350, EX400), all the other models are based on Raspberry PI 3, PI 3+, and 4. These 3 are further customized to support either HDX or a bunch of other protocols including vSpace.
- RX-420 (RDP) and RX-420(HDX) Series Based on Raspberry PI 4
- RX-RDP+ and RX-HDX+ Series based on Raspberry PI 3+
- RX-RDP, RX-HDX, and RX-300 based on Raspberry PI 3. The only model that gives you the option of Raspbian Linux is the RX-300 (red)
HDX models (green) have support for VMWARE and Citrix. The Other Models ( Blue) have support for Microsoft WVD, RDS, vSpace, and VERDE. This means that once you buy a Blue model, you can use them for any of these protocols which means your investment is well protected. Ncomputing seems to be going in the direction of using PI with their customized solutions and so far this is working well for them.
