Userful Corporation
Simplified Endpoint Solutions

Red Hat has created a stable and trusted server infrastructure platform used by organizations worldwide. But firms wanting to leverage that stability and power for their endpoint infrastructure face a complex, uphill, battle because of the huge cost and managment and security challenges. This is because organizations are often slow or hesitant to innovate in their endpoint infrastructure because of the huge cost, management and security challenges associated with traditional (Windows-based) approaches.

Userful Corporation enables organizations to reclaim their time and quickly prototype and deploy new projects that fully leverage the mature, stable and secure open source ecosystem. What would have previously taken weeks or months with Windows PCs can be done in minutes with zero clients connected to a server, all controlled from an intuitive, browser-based interface. “Whether it is digital signage, touch-screen kiosks, fixed-function desktops or even windows virtual-machines, the Userful solution delivers leading flexibility, security and cost even on the most demanding graphical applications,” says Timothy Griffin, Founder and CTO, Userful.

“Two big trends in the RedHat landscape are “containers” and “dev-ops”,” says Griffin. Userful brings both of these trends to centrally man¬aged endpoints, enabling IT teams to quickly execute and deliver business impact via pur¬pose-built endpoint infra¬structure. The company offers over a dozen out-of-the-box, “pre-fab”, light-weight session containers that can be quickly custom¬ized via the web in-terface then mapped via drag and drop, low-cost zero cli¬ent endpoints. “Endpoints mapped to just one container become a full-screen kiosk which is great for digital signage,” delineates Griffin. End-points mapped to multiple containers will display a welcome screen where users choose which offered containers to run which is great for multi-function kiosks, labs, or fixed-function workstations.

Userful offers three core products, Userful Multiplatform for low-cost zero client computing; Userful Desktop for multi-location desktops-as-a-service (DaaS) and locked-down public computing environments, and Userful Network Video Wall, which delivers real-time 4K content to up to 25 screens in any placement or rotation.

All three leverage low-cost, network zero client devices to deliver a huge cost, performance and flexibility advantage over competing approaches.

Userful runs from the server room and can quickly deliver an array of secure enterprise endpoints within minutes on top of a proven low-cost open-source stack eliminating many of the unforeseen complexities that can slow down innovative projects requiring endpoint infrastructure. The Ministry of Education in Brazil, for example, selected Userful for a massive project to connect millions of school children with endpoints across the country. Today, over 500,000 desktops and growing, this project is the world’s largest virtual desktop deployment and is internationally regarded as one of the most successful large-scale digital inclusion projects.

Userful is a layer that sits on top of the standardized open-source base, creating an easy platform and browser-based interface for organizations to rapidly deploy innovative and secure centralized endpoint infrastructure

“Userful has an architectural advantage on end-point infrastructure in that we are essentially the industry standard zero client devices we use can essentially be viewed as a network connected graphics card and USB hub,” says Griffin. This brings a huge security, cost and flexibility advantages over other that require an operating system and CPU at each endpoint. “Routinely we see people investing massive resources trying to make Windows or Android hardware endpoint devices do what they need, and they breathe a huge sigh of relief once they understand the Userful solution and test it out on their project,” concludes Griffin.