Wanova leaves stealth mode and promises a new era in desktop virtualization
Wanova's Distributed Desktop Virtualization architecture aims to transform how companies manage, support, and protect desktops and laptops -- particularly remote and mobile endpoints
Follow @infoworldDesktop virtualization is a hot topic, though the market has yet to mature to the point where organizations are adopting it at the same rate as server virtualization. Still, market researchers like Gartner say desktop virtualization is potentially a multi-billion dollar market, with licenses for virtual desktops expected to grow from 300,000 in 2008 to more than 50 million by 2013.
Investment firms must be thinking the same thing, because Greylock Partners, Carmel Ventures, and Opus Capital each seem to have their eyes on the future of the desktop virtualization market. Together, these venture capital firms have invested $13 million in Wanova's Series A-round of funding -- a significant amount of money in these turbulent financial times. The investment also shows belief that there is very real pain being realized by large enterprise organizations right now, and that Wanova has the solution to address this growing market opportunity.
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San Jose, Calif.-based Wanova has come out of stealth mode and entered a field of desktop virtualization offerings from giant companies like VMware, Citrix and Red Hat, as well as smaller players who have been at this a while like MokaFive. The startup was founded in April of 2008 by technology veterans, CEO Ilan Kessler and CTO Dr. Issy Ben-Shaul. Before this venture, the two also co-founded Actona, which was acquired by Cisco in 2004 for $82 million, and its software became the foundation for Cisco's Application Delivery Business Unit.
You might be thinking, "Great, another desktop virtualization solution." And I'd probably be right with you, but the company is throwing down the gauntlet and making some bold claims here. Wanova CTO Ben-Shaul said, "There is nothing else like this on the market. It's not VDI and it's not a client hypervisor-based solution. It's an entirely new paradigm."
Wanova claims its unique architecture and software, dubbed Distributed Desktop Virtualization (DDV), will be the trick to push desktop virtualization over the hump and transform how companies manage, support, and protect desktops and laptops, particularly remote and mobile endpoints.
