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Remote Access 
Without Compromises

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Why HP ZCentral beats VDI and cloud for high-performance PC power from anywhere.

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Gain Collaboration Without Compromise

The current state of work is ... disruption. If you’re like many organisations, you have employees working offsite, and you are exploring remote solutions like VDI and cloud. While this setup may work fine for your regular office staff, it throttles down the productivity of your creative and technical users, from designers to data scientists. Can you create an in-office technology experience for your high-performance workers? In this guide, you’ll learn how the world’s first single-sourced remote workstation solution2 from Z by HP can give you

up to 33% higher performance with dedicated remote computing for as little as 59% of the cost of virtualised workstations.3

Compared to cloud, Z by HP remote solutions offer considerably lower TCO and quick, predictable response times. That’s better performance, without compromises—for your innovators or for IT.

50%

of end users say they feel like they don’t have the tools they need to work remotely1 as seamlessly as they do from their desks.

These performance needs grow even more intensive for these power users:
 
• Creative professionals
 
• Product designers
 
• Engineers
 
• Data scientists

Meet Your Creative and Technical Pro Needs

These compute-intensive users share a need for high-end computing and low-latency connectivity because they’re generating designs and insights that drive your company’s intellectual property. These workers are the ones who need to collaborate worldwide on graphics-intensive apps, analyse big data live in the field, or create award-winning work overnight. Their tasks differ, but their requirements have key similarities:

Product Designers and Engineers

Engineers want powerful devices in the field and at customer meetings to show crisp, colour-true visuals and make real-time updates to complex CAD files. They get frustrated when large data sets and files open and transfer slowly when they’re on the go. They need access to workstation power in the field—with no loss in performance—while working on thin-and-light devices.

Data Scientists

Data scientists want remote access to collect unstructured data, clean it, model it, and quickly pull insights from it so managers can make on-the-fly decisions. They get frustrated with limited space in the site data closet and slow data-upload times. They need remote access to data at the edge source to clean it up and run real-time algorithms, without waiting for batch uploads to the cloud.

Creators

Creative pros want thin, light, and mobile solutions to create and collaborate anywhere, plus access to high-end workstation power for visual effects development. They get frustrated with the difficulty of collaborating on the same files with a counterpart in another location. They need one location that houses all the files so the files can be quickly pulled, edited, and reviewed.

No matter what their specific jobs entail, all kinds of technical and creative professionals benefit from a remote workflow that provides secure, shared access to compute power, data, and applications. In today’s hybrid work environment, they need to be able to change work locations dynamically and access full, fluid GPU and CPU acceleration from anywhere.

Why Traditional Remote Models Slow You Down.

VDI and cloud are the traditional approaches for remote work. But for performance-driven creators and technical users, these solutions can slow down the workflow. VDI restricts compute power, and cloud provisioning and performance can’t always keep pace with the explosion of data-heavy workloads.

VDI

Workflows often rely on shared corporate storage for digital content creation assets, large design files that the entire team works on, or data that needs to stay secure. That drives some companies to use a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or virtualised servers that access a virtualised pool of computing resources. But these methods don’t provide undivided access to workstation-class performance and can introduce latency, complexity, and overhead costs.4, 5

Cloud

Putting apps and storage in the cloud can be a viable solution for regular office workers, but it presents several challenges for intensive users. Provisioning more space isn’t always an instant process. Overhead expenses grow rapidly with large amounts of data moving to and from the cloud. Location, configuration, and bandwidth constraints can cause unpredictable performance. Lastly, when data leaves your premises, security risks increase.

While traditional VDI, cloud, and remote desktop apps are the typical way for employees to “tunnel in” to the company network, the more users that are connected (as in, many people are working from home at a peak time), the more the performance can deteriorate. Unlike these other remote-access solutions, HP ZCentral is built specifically to support workstation-class visual workloads over broadband, which has significantly lower bandwidth than local area connections.

Centralise and Accelerate High-end Users

The HP ZCentral solution moves past the traditional problems with VDI and cloud for industries that need to enable intensive remote users with fast, secure access to data and applications. This centralised stack combines hardware and software in a turnkey solution—empowering your global workforce with remote workstation access that rivals the experience of working locally. It also eases the IT burden with significant cost, security, and manageability advantages.

More About ZCentral

Boost Performance—Over Any Infrastructure

Even if you’re already running other brands of PC hardware, VMs, or software, you can still get the smooth performance of HP remote access by overlaying our software atop your existing infrastructure and remote-access applications—it’s both vendor- and OS-agnostic. Turn any device—including tablets, laptops, and thin clients—from any manufacturer into a high-performance PC through the HP and Teradici remote access software.

Lay the Foundation for No-compromise Collaboration With HP ZCentral

Workstation Access From Anywhere and Any Device.6

With OS-independent software that provides high-fidelity remote workstation connectivity, remote users can access workstation power from their existing client device—as if they were in the office. Users can collaborate in near real time by sharing workstations one-to-many or many-to-one. In addition to a connection that’s solely portioned for task-intensive users, advanced compression and dynamic resizing keep all users connected in virtual real time. HP and Teradici remote access software helps performance-hungry users work like they’re local:

1:1 dedicated connection with full CPU and GPU power to handle intense workloads

Collaboration tools built in for sharing and controlling remote sessions with other users

Exceptional image quality with support for 4K or multiple-monitor setups, plus automatic adaptation to the receiver’s resolution

Application-independent—only pixels are sent, not data

Screen sessions are scalable to any size

Support for Windows 10 touch and gestures

Support for specialised client hardware like a 3D-space mouse and financial-trading keyboard

Support for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS across laptops, tablets, and even thin clients

More About ZCentral

Bring Visibility and Control With HP ZCentral

Workstation Management Made Easy.

Manage connections between remote users and your centralised hardware with HP and Teradici connection management software. Users can easily connect to a dedicated workstation or the next available one within a pool of workstations—no technical or system knowledge needed. IT department managers gain total remote control of all HP and Teradici remote access software connections:

Monitor status with workstation health indicators

Hard power-on or power-off for total system control7

Easily manage all user connections remotely from a single console

Integrated with Microsoft Active Directory for easy user setup

Assign individual machines or share pools of available workstation resources

One-click access for environments running
Z by HP Workstations

Complete Your Solution With Racked Z by HP Workstations

Secure Compute Power

Although you can run HP and Teradici remote access software and connection management software over your existing non-HP infrastructure, your power users get the optimal experience if you’re connecting to Z by HP Workstations (Z by HP). Even if your user endpoints are not workstation-class PCs, Z by HP lets them harness powerful performance for compute-intensive remote workflows, including graphics-dedicated CPU cores.

 

HP ZCentral 4R Workstations are 1U rack-mountable, so you can co-locate them next to your data storage for fast access to project files—no extra remote hardware or software required.5 And as the most secure workstation,8 Z by HP keeps data highly protected and within the workstation. It’s a simple end-to-end solution for power users and the IT teams that support them.

Tailor the HP ZCentral Experience With HP Device-as-a-service9

Simpler, Easier, Customer-Customizable.

If you’re not ready to own the hardware yourself—or you need more cost predictability—HP Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) for HP ZCentral simplifies device management with:

Devices

Multi-OS, multi-form-factor device selections

Flexibility

Tailored offerings with simplified purchasing

Insights

Analytics plus proactive management and security

New features for HP DaaS include factory provisioning for out-of-the-box productivity, HP TechPulse telemetry for better end-user and IT satisfaction, and proactive security with government-grade technology plus simplified management.

Clearer Collaboration Over Cloud

Even organisations that are dedicated to VDI or cloud-based workstations find that layering HP and Teradici remote access software on top of their existing solutions can dramatically improve performance and end-user experience, as well as make life easier for IT.

 

• Predictable cost: Considerably lower TCO compared to cloud workstations, which are better-suited for flex use than long-term use.

 

• Protected location: Critical data stays inside the company for maximised security.

 

• Licensing-compliant: Standard ISV licensing and support vs. VDI and cloud.

 

• Turnkey solution: One vendor for all hardware, software, support, and services.

Outperform VDI

HP ZCentral solutions provide workload and workflow-specific dedicated compute power plus faster project load times compared to virtualisation.3 A centralised computing infrastructure with HP ZCentral and racked Z by HP Workstations can deliver up to:

16%‑
33%

Higher
performance3

59%‑
72%

of the cost of server-
based virtualisation3

Servers are traditionally more expensive than workstations and typically carry additional hardware and software costs.

Equip Power Users to Tackle Complex Projects From Anywhere

HP ZCentral is the world’s first single-sourced remote workstation solution,2 a hardware and software solution that delivers unthrottled, workload-optimised compute power from anywhere, on any device. 

 

And high-performance users aren’t the only ones to benefit—IT will love lower costs and a secure, centralised location for workstation management.

More about ZCentral

Z by HP for
IT Professionals

Equip your workforce with highly secure, upgradable tech so they can keep evolving — whether working from home, the office, or everywhere.

Learn More

Exceptional performance
with Intel® Xeon®
and Intel® Core™ i9 processors.

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Disclaimers

    1. HP Proprietary survey of 1,267 ITDMs and full-time employed end-users, 25 years or older, in the US, France, and China – March, 2020
    2. Based on workstation OEMs that design, develop, and support both the hardware and software for centralised workstations to enable remote graphics as of October 2019.
    3. Based on hp.com store and dell.com store pricing dated September 2019, and performance based on core count of a racked-mounted HP Z4 G4, 6 core workstation configuration with 3 year warranty support, compared with two configurations of Dell PowerEdge R740 Rack Server configured with VMware Horizon Advanced 10 pack CCu license and 3 year support, Quadro Virtual Data Center Workstation hardware and licenses, and 3 year support. One configuration of the server uses 36 cores to be shared among 9 concurrent users, the other uses 56 cores to be shared among the same 9 users to ensure that each of the 9 users avail of 6 cores simultaneously, to more closely approximate the maximum CPU core availability of 9 racked Z4 workstations. Note that the processors on the Dell servers have a lower base frequency in both cases.
    4. https://idcdocserv.com/US46689920
    5. No additional virtualisation hardware or software required (i.e. VMWare, Citrix, GPU virtualisation, Teradici, or 3rd-party brokers). Specialised IT management not required.
    6. HP ZCentral Remote Boost Sender does not come preinstalled on Z by HP Workstations but can be downloaded and run on all Z by HP Workstations (desktops and laptops) without license purchase through December 31, 2022. License purchase is required to use ZCentral Remote Boost Sender on non-Z hardware. Starting December 15, 2021, a CA+ subscription (ZCentral Remote Boost and Teradici CAS) can be purchased at https://teradici.com/products/future-of-remote-compute. ZCentral Remote Boost Sender requires Windows 10 or 11, RHEL/CentOS (7 or 8, or UBUNTU 18.04 or 20.04 LTS operating systems. macOS (10.14 or newer) operating system and ThinPro 7.2 are only supported on the receiver side. Requires network access. The software is available for download at hp.com/ZCentralRemoteBoost.
    7. Requires enablement of Intel Active Management Technology.
    8. Based on HP’s unique and comprehensive security capabilities at no additional cost among desktop workstation vendors as of January 2017 on HP Desktop Workstations with 7th Gen and higher Intel® Processors.
    9. HP DaaS is sold separately. HP DaaS includes hardware, repair services, and analytics components and may include financing. HP DaaS requirements may vary by region or by Authorised HP DaaS Service Partner. Please contact your local HP Representative or Authorised DaaS Partner for specific details in your location. HP services are governed by the applicable HP terms and conditions of service provided or indicated to Customer at the time of purchase. Customer may have additional statutory rights according to applicable local laws, and such rights are not in any way affected by the HP terms and conditions of service or the HP Limited Warranty provided with your HP Product.
  1. Product may differ from images depicted.
     

    Product images are for illustration purposes only, product availability and colours may vary by country.

     

    © HP Development Company, L.P. The Information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Warranties for HP products and services are set out in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. In addition, our products and services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. Subject to the foregoing, nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

  2. Intel, the Intel logo, Core and Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. NVIDIA and Quadro are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. AMD is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

  3. 4AA7-9144ENW Rev 1, March 2021