Hard-core gamers play fast-paced action games set in realistically depicted 3-D environments that require powerful graphics hardware. Traditionally, playing these games meant owning either a game console or a high-end personal computer. But a startup called OnLive created a system that allows even players with less sophisticated systems to enjoy the latest action games via a network connection. Now the company is planning to roll out the same technology to businesses so that remote workers can use demanding professional applications as if they were sitting at a powerful workstation in the office.
OnLive developed a video streaming technology that doesn’t rely on the kind of lag-inducing buffering employed by on-demand video websites such as Netflix and Hulu (see “TR10: Cloud Streaming,” May/June 2010). This makes it possible to run games in the cloud on high-performance servers and almost instantaneously stream responses to players’ inputs. It also allows OnLive to give business users access to a virtual desktop on any hardware that can display a video stream: they can launch applications and save files, just as they would with a regular desktop computer. Not only can this technology give remote workers access to office software, but it can even allow them to use the programs on smart phones and tablets, which are cheaper and easier to carry than the more powerful laptops that such workers typically use.
“We’re seeing a new market emerge that we’re calling ‘desktops as a service,’” says David Johnson, an analyst with Forrester Research. Startups such as Desktone specialize in offering cloud-based virtual desktops, and larger companies such as Rackspace are starting to provide such services alongside their established cloud offerings. With so many entrants into the market, Johnson believes that providers must differentiate themselves to succeed. Silicon Valley–based OnLive believes it stands out for the speed it offers and the fact that its system can work with a wide range of user hardware—as proven by the success of its game service, which lets players choose from a selection of popular titles and play them directly from the company’s website. OnLive launched the service in the United States in early 2009 and expanded it to the United Kingdom in September. Agreements with publishers prohibit it from giving an exact figure, but OnLive’s CEO and founder, Steve Perlman, says the service has millions of users and is rapidly adding more; the number doubled from July to September.
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