Aqua Connect (http://www.aquaconnect.net), providers of an enterprise grade Mac terminal service, has announce plans to optimize performance of Aqua Connect Terminal Server on the Mac Pro Server. This announcement comes after Apple announced last month that they will no longer offer the Xserve line of servers starting in February 2011.
The discontinuation of the Xserve puts the Mac Pro Server at the forefront of Apple’s server technology, according to Renee Mehrian, executive vice president of Aqua Connect. The Mac Pro Server provides features that are more suited for Mac terminal services and enterprise customers, but also brings some new challenges to the field. Aqua Connect has begun development to optimize performance of their products on the Mac Pro Server to provide enterprise customers with a greater user experience than what was possible on the Xserve.
“When Apple decided to end production on the Xserve, we looked at this as an opportunity to optimize remote desktop services for the Mac Pro and Mac mini Server” Mehrian says. “After speaking with our enterprise division and customers, we were pleased to find that these organizations remained dedicated to the Mac platform and were planning on increasing their Mac OS X Server deployments regardless of what type of server hardware was available.”
The Mac Pro Server can house more processors and RAM than the Xserve line, which is ideal for Aqua Connect Terminal Server deployments, Mehrian adds. Aqua Connect’s development team has also begun to tap into the improved video card on the Mac Pro Server to enhance graphics and video acceleration in remote sessions.
“While you lose the density of the Xserve, the Mac Pro Server offers better value when considering processing capacity per dollar spent” says Joseph Cohen, chief technical officer of Aqua Connect. “The fact that a Mac Pro Server can scale to approximately 1.5 times an Xserve demonstrates the increased scalability and evolution of the Mac server platform.”
With today’s announcement, Aqua Connect has also launched their Mac Pro Server Guide on their web site. The Mac Pro Server Guide answers many of the frequently asked questions and challenges that the new server line presents in the enterprise and data centers. The guide addresses Apple and third party solutions for remote management and power cycles, rack mounting, and redundancy of system components.
