Virtual Desktops | News

Leostream Launches Subscription-Based Mobile Desktop Service for Higher Ed

• By Leila Meyer
• 11/03/11

Leostream, a developer of virtual hosted desktop software, has launched its Leostream Mobile Desktops service, which provides subscription-based, cloud-hosted desktop services built on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Customers can access their Leostream Mobile Desktop from any desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, regardless of operating system or CPU architecture.

Leostream uses the Ericom AccessNow remote desktop protocol (RDP) client to connect users to their mobile desktop through any HTML5-enabled Web browser. Alternatively, Leostream supports connections through native RDP clients, such as Windows Remote Desktop Connection, Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac OSX, or the open source xRDP client for Linux. Leostream also provides a Leostream Connect client for connections from any Windows or iOS device, and it supports Ericom AccessToGo RDP clients for iOS or Android devices. RDP sessions are accelerated and compressed using Ericom Blaze, and mobile desktop logins are secured using an encrypted, single-use token to authenticate users.

Leostream Mobile Desktops run the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, although it is possible to use Windows Server 2008 as a desktop, rather than a server, by obtaining a Remote Desktop Services Client Access License (RDS CAL) from Microsoft. Users can install any applications they need on their mobile desktop from any installation media, such as a DVD drive, on the local machine, or they can download application installers from a Web browser on the mobile desktop, just as they would with their local desktop. Applications, user data, and other personal settings are always available until the desktop is deleted.

Leostream Mobile Desktops are available now for $20 per month. No up-front fees or long-term contracts are required. Further information can be found at the Leostream site.