tuCloud is a UK startup that entered the cloud computing market in September 2009.
While the world was waiting for top players like Verizon and IBM to launch their desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) cloud computing offerings, this little company came out of nowhere and started offering Windows Vista and 7 virtual desktops (with VMware/Teradici PCoIP remote protocol, preloaded Windows applications and 100% uptime SLA) before anybody else on the market.
While it’s not exactly clear how tuCloud is able to do so without breaking current Microsoft licensing, the company seems to have made interesting progress in the last six months.
So far in fact tuCloud closed deals with Virtual Computer and Kaviza, two promising startup in the virtual desktop management space.
Thanks to the deal with Virtual Computer, on-premises virtual desktops across multiple continents will be centrally manageable by NxTop on tuCloud servers.
Kaviza VDI-in-a-box instead is used as the primary VDI architecture to keep the offerings costs as low as possible.
Anyway, the most important achievement so far definitively is an agreement with EMC Consulting to use their workforce when the demand for virtual desktops is too big for their own staff.
tuCloud in fact doesn’t offer yet a self-service provisioning portal where customers can order, customize and purchase their virtual desktop. So far they guarantee a virtual desktop delivery within 24 hours since order is placed.
The fact that EMC trusts the company will definitively give customers a lot more confidence in the startup capability to deliver promises.