Aqua Connect

Aqua Connect Inc., is a software development company based in Los Angeles, CA. The company is the market leader in terminal services for the Mac. In 2007, the company developed the first terminal server software for the Mac OS X platform.
Aqua Connect's server software runs on Apple servers running Mac OS X but allows hardware running various operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux to connect to the Apple server. The company is one of a few to offer access virtualization for the Mac.
History
Aqua Connect was founded in the spring of 2007 by the current (as of 2009) CTO, Joseph Cohen.
In 2007 Cohen developed the first version of the Aqua Connect Terminal Server, known as “ACTS” for Mac OS X Tiger platform. Later that year Aqua Connect was founded. On November 19, 2007 the company released Aqua Connect Terminal Server 2007.2. The release was an enterprise grade version of the earlier build of ACTS that Cohen developed in early 2007. Aqua Connect Terminal Server 2007.2 was later renamed Aqua Connect Terminal Server 2.0 and is still available as the OS X Tiger version.
Paul Fiore, co-founder and CEO of Digital Insight, was added to the Board of Directors on September 3, 2008.
On September 24, 2008 the company released Aqua Connect Terminal Server 3.0. The new release featured support for Mac OS X Leopard platform and included Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol as a supported client.
Aqua Connect Terminal Server 3.1 was released on March 26, 2009. Among new features were audio support and local printing functionality.
Technology overview
Aqua Connect differs from many other virtualization products in that the software shares application resources from the server to all end users through a terminal session instead of completely replicating the operating system to an end user. This allows Aqua Connect software to run more user sessions and decreases the workload on the server when compared to true virtualization products.
The Aqua Connect Terminal Server software uses terminal emulation to deploy the OS X desktop to various hardware. The software allows multiple users to remotely connect from anywhere to a centralized Mac OS X Server. It can be installed on either an Intel or PPC based Mac OS X server (ACTS 3.0 can only be installed on an Intel Server). The users connect to the server and run their applications while being isolated from one another. Users can then connect using a variety of devices. Any device that is Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Virtual Network Computing (VNC), or X11 compatible may connect to Aqua Connect. Devices such as Mac desktops and laptops, PCs, smart phones, iPhones, and thin clients such as Sun Ray and BOSa NOVA are examples of compatible clients.
The terminal server software developed by Aqua Connect focuses performance to multiple cores of a server. The use of multiple cores may allow some applications to run faster and perform more reliably. The Aqua Connect Terminal Server will perform better with 4x2Ghz than it will on 2x3Ghz.
Licensing of Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol
For the 3.0 version of the Aqua Connect Terminal Server, the company successfully licensed Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol server for the Mac OS X platform. This made Aqua Connect the first company to license and implement Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol for the Mac.

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