Amazon Tweaks AppStream to Ease Windows App Streaming
This is a big breakthrough if it works as advertised, getting CAD, photography apps, and other graphics intensive programs working on pads, phones, and handhelds working over a thinner network has always been problematic. AWS is tackling the issue by putting a virtual graphics workstation in the cloud, and making the “directX rendering offload chore” an configurable installation, so I’m guessing there’s an API or wizard involved somewhere. It will be interesting to see if this also supports…. Flash.
Amazon Web Services has updated its AppStream service so developers can set up Windows apps to stream down to mobile devices more easily.
Amazon AppStream, announced a year ago, makes use of AWS’s muscular Nvidia GPUs and STX streaming protocol to speed up the often-sluggish performance of desktop apps running on mobile devices. AppStream offloads the number-crunching heavy lifting of AutoCAD or other graphics-heavy applications so they can run on small devices without a ton of lag time, according to the company.
Before now, to use AppStream, the developer had to futz with Microsoft’s DirectX rendering library. That apparently is no longer the case. According to a blog post by AWS evangelist Jeff Barr:
You can now stream just about any existing Microsoft Windows application without having to make any code changes. You simply step through a simple installation and configuration process using the AWS Management Console. Once you’ve completed the process, your users can begin to use the application.
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