GO-Global

GraphOn Corporation
Public (OTCQB: GOJO)
Industry Software
Founded 1982
Headquarters Santa Cruz, California, United States
Area served
 Worldwide
Products Application Publishing Software
Website www.graphon.com

GraphOn GO-Global is remote access/application publishing software that allows users to access and run Windows, Linux, and UNIX applications installed on a central server. GO-Global displays the application's user interface on personal computers and other client devices running a variety of operating systems, including UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Windows Mobile, and Pocket PC. GO-Global can be used to Web-enable existing applications without the need to modify existing code. Applications appear on the client device either in a Web browser or within a loose window on the desktop.

GO-Global is a server-based computing product that can, among other things, provide two-tier, client–server applications with many of the benefits of a three-tier architecture, or cloud computing (server-based computing). With GO-Global, users can connect to applications remotely — from offices, homes, from the road, or anywhere Internet or dial-up connectivity is available. Applications are installed on a central server, but look and feel like the natively-run, locally installed application. Local and remote users can log on to their company’s server and have secure access to all the applications and data they use at work, including email, office productivity suites, management applications, and custom software.

GO-Global general diagram

GO-Global can run any application on a central computer and thereby allows desktop and productivity applications to be accessed on-demand from any location, in a software as a service deployment model. This is in contrast to appstreaming systems, in which the applications, while still stored on a central server, are streamed to the client on-demand and then executed on the client machine.

GO-Global remotes the user interface of existing applications without requiring any changes to the application's code. Remoting can be done by either displaying application windows as if they were native applications, or as pages inside a web browser, as if applications were Web 2.0 Rich Internet Applications. GO-Global delivers the application's user interface over the Internet. It does not provide full control of a computer over the net, as KVM software does.

Architecture

GO-Global consists of two parts: the GO-Global server software and the GO-Global client software. The GO-Global server software runs on a central server along with the applications being published. Each client device runs one of the GO-Global client modules that are available as native thin clients or as Web browser plug-ins.

The GO-Global server software is available for Microsoft Windows and UNIX/Linux computers. A GO-Global server can be configured as a physically solo server or as a member of a server cluster. Due to its optimized implementation, GO-Global adds a minimum amount of overhead.

GO-Global client software is available for several operating systems, including Microsoft Windows (CE, 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit platforms), Mac OS X, Linux, and other UNIX-like systems. GO-Global supports four UNIX variants: HP-UX, Solaris, and AIX, and Linux (Red Hat, Suse). GO-Global also provides a Web browser plug-in client that displays application windows as Web pages.

To access an application by means of a Web page, a hyperlink is defined pointing to a page that checks if the GO-Global client plug-in is present in the browser. If not, it is downloaded, and the GO-Global client is then invoked to open a connection with the server that hosts the application. The application then executes on the server and is displayed within the browser

To access an application with a GO-Global native thin client, the client is run and a connection is made to the server containing the desired application. Applications can also be published as icons on the user’s desktop. Clicking the icons makes the GO-Global client run and invoke the host-resident application.

Unlike other application publishing products, GO-Global does not use "screen scraping" technology (where bitmaps or output displays are compressed and transmitted to the remote device). Instead, GO-Global intercepts Device Driver Interface (DDI) or X11 calls that are interpreted and rendered by the remote display device. This enhances client pixel redraws and greatly reduces network traffic.

Ideal for graphics-intensive applications, GO-Global uses the graphic display code in a binary format. This enables GO-Global to communicate to the host and client in a secure and optionally encrypted session. GO-Global utilizes the proprietary Rapid X Protocol (RXP) that allows for fast performance even over low-bandwidth connections such as dial-up lines of high latency Internet connections. This highly efficient proprietary protocol is a non-published standard, thus adding to its anonymity and security (keeping in mind that security-through-obscurity is not really security).

GO-Global has the ability to automatically detect a user’s connection speed and dynamically tune itself to achieve the best performance over a LAN, WAN, dial-up or wireless connection. This provides the user with a seamless experience - without the need to load software.

GO-Global server software listens for client connections on TCP port 491 by default. When a client connects to the host, a new session is created by initiating and running the appropriate drivers, subsystems, and services according to the host operating system. The login process authenticates the user and connects to the requested application.

Key to this process is the creation of a virtual display device and driver that routes the drawing calls to the client, compressing and encrypting them. Likewise, keyboard and mouse events are routed to the application from the client. GO-Global also creates virtual channels, which allow client printers and client drives to be presented to the host session, thus allowing applications to access them.

With GO-Global, applications can also be remoted via tunneling (telnet, http, etc.), established between clients and servers either with direct IP connectivity or without it, thus allowing access to applications on communication channels that are set up on demand in accordance with customer security policies.

Licensing

GO-Global is licensed on a concurrent usage basis. It is not user or device based. GO-Global does not require Microsoft Windows Terminal Server.

History

GO-Global is a product of GraphOn Corporation. GraphOn was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, USA. Originally a graphics hardware manufacturer, the company has grown and evolved its business over the years. In 1996, GraphOn entered the market for UNIX and Linux server-based computing software. In 2000, a major release was issued, called Bridges for UNIX. In 2002, the product was upgraded and renamed GO-Global UX 2.0. The company significantly expanded its business in 2000 by adding Windows application publishing and Web-enabling software to its product line with Bridges for Windows. Between 2003 and 2008, versions 2.1 through 3.2 for GO-Global for Windows and GO-Global for UNIX products were issued. The next major release, 4.0, is planned for 2010.

See also

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, November 16, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.