Dell takes wraps off cloud client computing-focused Project Ophelia

Dell has unveiled the newest product in its cloud client computing range - code-named Project Ophelia - during the second day of CES 2013.

The device is roughly the size of a wireless dongle and plugs directly into a user's monitor or television and requires only two amps of power, which it gets directly from the screen.

Running the Android Jellybean operating system, Ophelia will deliver a desktop experience to users without the need for hardware and will bring cloud client computing to the mass consumer and enterprise market, the company claims.

Tarkan Maner, vice president and general manager of cloud client computing at Dell, told Cloud Pro the company chose Android over other more established desktop operating systems to take advantage of the half a million apps available through Google Play.

"Imagine your desktop having all these applications available from scratch - that is a big benefit for consumers and enterprise users, which is why we use Android," Maner said.

"[With regard to security] we have our own IP on there to secure and lock down Android and create a management platform around Android ... securing it from the end user all the way back to the datacentre," he added.

As well as enterprise and consumer users, Dell plans to use the product to forge closer ties with the telco community.

"During the design phase we got real interest from telcos who wanted to make it available as a service model to their consumers. So we are going to have a big push now into telcos who want to provide desktop-as-a-service through Dell cloud or their own cloud using these devices as a cloud computing end user platform," Maner added.

Ophelia will begin its beta testing with 20 telcos across the globe after the announcement at CES and is expected to go on general release in the second half of 2013.