TABLE OF CONTENTS
CEO Message
Rethinking Endpoint Strategy as Hardware Costs Rise
One of the biggest changes happening in IT right now is not just the rise of AI — it is the pressure AI is placing on the hardware supply chain. Memory has become a critical constraint. Reuters recently reported that major hardware companies are already facing significant cost pressure from rising memory chip prices, driven in part by AI data-center demand and limited near-term production capacity.
The impact is beginning to reach the broader device market. Apple CEO Tim Cook has warned of “significantly higher memory costs,” and industry reporting points to a wider shift as memory manufacturers prioritize high-bandwidth memory for AI systems over conventional DRAM and NAND used in PCs, smartphones, and other endpoint devices.
For organizations still relying heavily on physical laptops, this is an important moment to reassess the endpoint model. Physical devices are not just a purchase cost. They require procurement, imaging, patching, security tooling, repairs, refresh planning, and ongoing support. When component costs rise and availability becomes less predictable, the operational burden grows with it.
Softdrive offers a different path. Our virtual computer tiers are designed for a wide range of knowledge workers, giving customers the ability to match compute resources to actual workload needs without overbuying physical hardware for every employee. Customers can continue using physical devices where they make sense, while shifting more day-to-day and specialized work into secure, centrally managed virtual computers.
As endpoint economics change, we believe more organizations will move from device-centric computing to flexible, cloud-delivered workspaces. Softdrive is built to help customers make that transition with better cost control, simpler management, and a more scalable operating model.
If you still have a portion of your workforce running workloads on local laptops & OS - let’s talk.
Product & Roadmap
Identity-Driven Group Management Comes to Softnet
As organizations grow, managing desktop access at scale becomes increasingly challenging. Many IT teams already rely on identity providers such as Microsoft Entra ID and Okta to organize users through groups, making group-based administration a natural extension of existing security and access management workflows.
This month, Softnet introduces expanded group management capabilities designed to simplify desktop administration and improve alignment between identity management and virtual desktop access. Administrators can now synchronize user groups directly through SCIM, allowing group membership to be managed from the organization's identity provider while automatically propagating into Softdrive.
For organizations that require additional flexibility, groups can also be created and managed directly within Softnet. This allows administrators to maintain local groups or supplement existing identity-provider workflows where needed.
The most significant enhancement is the ability to assign groups directly to Computer Pools and Fleets. Rather than granting access on a user-by-user basis, administrators can now assign an entire group through a single configuration. When new users are added to an existing group, they automatically inherit access to the appropriate resources, reducing manual administration and ensuring consistent policy enforcement.
This capability is especially valuable for larger organizations where users are frequently onboarded, reassigned, or moved between teams. By aligning desktop access with existing identity management processes, organizations can reduce administrative overhead, improve operational consistency, and scale their virtual desktop environments more effectively.
Real-Time System Metrics Help Optimize Desktop Performance
One of the most common challenges facing virtual desktop administrators is understanding when users have outgrown the resources assigned to their virtual computers. A desktop that was appropriately sized when first deployed may eventually become constrained as workloads evolve, applications become more demanding, or user responsibilities change.
To help administrators make more informed decisions, Softnet now provides real-time visibility into key system metrics directly within the management interface. Administrators can quickly view CPU utilization, memory consumption, and storage usage for individual virtual computers without requiring external monitoring tools or waiting for end users to report performance issues.
These metrics provide immediate insight into how desktops are performing in production environments. For example, consistently high memory utilization may indicate that a user would benefit from moving to a larger computer tier with additional RAM. Similarly, sustained CPU utilization can reveal workloads that would perform better with additional processing resources.
By providing direct visibility into resource consumption, Softnet enables administrators to make data-driven decisions about desktop sizing rather than relying on assumptions or reactive troubleshooting. This allows organizations to proactively optimize performance while avoiding unnecessary overprovisioning.
The feature is particularly valuable for organizations supporting multiple types of knowledge workers. While some users require only lightweight productivity desktops, others may need additional resources for software development, engineering, analytics, design, or other demanding workloads. Real-time metrics make it easier to align users with the most appropriate Softdrive computer tier based on actual usage patterns.
Beyond individual desktop optimization, these metrics also provide greater operational visibility across larger deployments. Administrators can identify resource trends, improve capacity planning, and proactively address potential bottlenecks before they affect user productivity.
As Softdrive continues to expand platform observability, our goal is to provide administrators with the tools they need to make smarter infrastructure decisions, improve user experience, and maximize the value of their virtual desktop investments.
Continued Improvements to Session Reliability and User Experience
Reliability remains one of the most important factors in delivering a successful virtual desktop experience. Users expect their desktop environment to be responsive, predictable, and capable of supporting modern collaboration tools without interruption.
This release includes a broad collection of enhancements focused on improving session stability, media handling, and overall user experience across the Softstream platform.
Several improvements target collaboration workflows, including better webcam recovery following device reconnects and endpoint sleep events. These updates reduce situations where users previously needed to restart sessions or applications before cameras would function correctly. Additional fixes improve audio device handling and help eliminate interruptions that can occur when users connect or disconnect peripherals during active sessions.
Hardware acceleration and video encoding reliability have also been enhanced across AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel-based systems. These improvements contribute to a smoother desktop experience for users working with graphics-intensive applications, multimedia content, and high-performance virtual desktop workloads.
Linux and IGEL users will benefit from additional stability improvements as well. Fixes addressing hardware encoding, webcam behavior, and collaboration application compatibility continue Softdrive's commitment to providing a consistent experience regardless of endpoint platform.
The release also includes improvements to session responsiveness, screen update reliability, cursor synchronization, and multi-monitor workflows. While these updates may not always be visible individually, they collectively contribute to a more polished and dependable desktop experience.
To further improve usability, Softstream session windows now display the active computer name directly within the title bar. This makes it significantly easier for users and administrators who routinely work across multiple virtual desktops to quickly identify and manage active sessions.
As more organizations evaluate replacing specialized workstations and expensive physical laptops with cloud-delivered desktops, reliability becomes increasingly important. These ongoing investments in performance, stability, and usability continue to move Softdrive closer to our goal of delivering a virtual desktop experience that feels as responsive and dependable as working locally while providing all the flexibility and operational benefits of the cloud.
Customer Success
Become a Certified Softdrive Level 1 VDI Administrator
One of the fastest ways to reduce support escalations and improve the end-user experience is to ensure your administrators understand the most common issues users encounter and how to resolve them quickly.
To help customers build operational expertise, Softdrive offers a complimentary Level 1 VDI Administrator Training session. During this interactive one-hour session, a member of the Softdrive Support team will meet directly with your administrators and walk through the most common support scenarios encountered in production environments.
Topics include troubleshooting login and connection issues, interpreting Softnet error messages, identifying common client-side problems, understanding session behavior, and reviewing proven troubleshooting workflows used by our own support engineers. Administrators will also learn where to locate diagnostic information within Softnet and gain practical tips for resolving issues before they require escalation to Softdrive Support.
The goal of the training is simple: empower your team to resolve common end-user issues faster, improve response times, and build confidence managing your Softdrive environment.
Whether you're onboarding new administrators or simply want to deepen your team's understanding of the platform, Level 1 VDI Administrator Training is a great way to help your organization get more value from Softdrive.
What You'll Learn
- Understanding common Softnet error messages and what they mean
- Troubleshooting user login and connection issues
- Identifying client-side versus desktop-side problems
- Best practices for diagnosing performance concerns
- Using Softnet administrative tools more effectively
- When to troubleshoot internally versus when to engage Softdrive Support
- Tips and tricks from the Softdrive Support team
Interested in scheduling a session for your team? Reach out to your Customer Success Manager or contact Softdrive Support to reserve a training slot.
Troubleshooting Desktop Performance with Real-Time Metrics and the Softnet API
Few support requests are more common than an end user reporting that their virtual desktop feels slow. The challenge for administrators is determining whether the issue is caused by resource constraints, a temporary workload spike, an application issue, or something else entirely.
Softnet's real-time system metrics provide an excellent first place to start. Administrators can quickly view CPU utilization, memory consumption, and storage usage directly within the Softnet console, allowing them to immediately assess the health of a user's virtual computer without requiring additional tools or lengthy troubleshooting sessions.
For example, if a user reports poor performance and their desktop is consistently running at high CPU utilization or nearing memory capacity, administrators can quickly determine whether the user may benefit from moving to a larger Softdrive computer tier. Likewise, storage metrics can help identify situations where available disk space may be impacting performance or application behavior.
This visibility allows IT teams to make informed decisions based on actual utilization data rather than relying solely on user feedback or assumptions. In many cases, the built-in metrics available within Softnet provide enough information to identify the root cause and resolve the issue quickly.
For organizations that require deeper analysis, Softnet's API can extend these capabilities even further. Administrators can pull utilization data at regular intervals and integrate it into reporting platforms, monitoring systems, dashboards, or internal operational tools. This enables teams to analyze trends over time, establish performance baselines, and identify recurring patterns that may not be visible through a single point-in-time observation.
Together, Softnet's built-in metrics and API capabilities provide a practical troubleshooting workflow:
- Start with the real-time metrics available directly in Softnet.
- Review CPU, memory, and storage utilization for the affected virtual computer.
- Determine whether the user is approaching resource limits and may benefit from additional resources.
- If deeper investigation is required, leverage the Softnet API to collect historical utilization data and integrate it with existing monitoring and reporting systems.
By combining immediate visibility with long-term operational insight, administrators can resolve performance issues faster, improve user satisfaction, and ensure users remain aligned with the most appropriate Softdrive computer tier for their workload.
Recommended Best Practices
- Use Softnet metrics as the first step when investigating performance complaints.
- Review CPU and memory utilization before increasing desktop resources.
- Monitor storage consumption to proactively identify capacity concerns.
- Use historical API data to establish performance baselines for key user groups.
- Periodically review desktop utilization to ensure users remain matched to the appropriate Softdrive computer tier.
Learn more about Softnet metrics, monitoring, and API capabilities in our support center.