The Texas company that never gave up on the desktop - and built the secure endpoints that classified networks run on.
ClearCube Technology, Inc. - Cedar Park, Texas. A closely held hardware manufacturer that designs, builds and tests secure zero clients, blade PCs and KVM systems on American soil. Portrait: corporate mark, 2025.
In 1997, two engineers looked under an office desk and saw a problem. Cables, heat, dust, a tower humming away where a person's knees should be, and - increasingly - a security hole no IT department could see. Andrew Heller, a former IBM Fellow, and Barry Thornton founded a company, originally called Vicinity Systems, on a contrarian idea: the computer does not need to live at the desk at all. Pull the compute back into the data center, put a small, stateless device on the desk, and you "clear the cube" of clutter, heat, and risk. The company took that phrase as its name.
Nearly three decades later, ClearCube Technology is still built on that premise, and the world has largely come around to it. The company designs, manufactures, assembles and tests secure endpoint devices - zero clients, thin clients, blade and rackmount PCs, desktop and AI workstations, and secure KVM switches - almost all of it on American soil. Its hardware sits at thousands of federal, military, healthcare, financial and commercial locations, where the requirement is less "fast" and more "provably secure."
"Designed, manufactured, assembled, and tested in the USA." - a line that reads like fine print until your network is classified. Then it is the whole point.
That is the register ClearCube plays in. It is not a consumer brand, and it does not try to be. With roughly 57 employees and a $11M-scale revenue base, it is a specialist - the kind of vendor a government buyer calls when a device has to pass a certification, not just a benchmark.
Figures compiled from public filings and market data (Apollo / ZoomInfo / CB Insights). Revenue and headcount are approximate.
What it does. ClearCube centralizes computing. Instead of a full PC at every desk, workers get a zero or thin client - a small, often stateless device - that connects over PCoIP or VMware Blast to compute hosts and blade PCs running in a secured data center. The result is a desktop experience with the data locked away from the room it is used in.
Who its customers are. The core buyer is government and the military. ClearCube's devices show up in command-and-control centers, SCIFs, and defense networks - and in 2025 the US Air Force selected the company as its trusted zero client provider. Beyond defense, the customer list spans hospitals and healthcare, financial trading floors, contact centers and BPOs, retail, digital signage, and AI/deep-learning workstations.
The problems it solves. Keeping classified and unclassified traffic apart at the desk. Reducing the attack surface of a full PC. Meeting procurement rules like TAA compliance. Extending hardware lifespans. And letting a small IT team manage many endpoints centrally rather than crawling under desks one at a time.
The expertise. Nearly 30 years of one thing: secure, centralized endpoints. That focus shows up as first-to-market fiber-connected zero clients, multi-level-security devices, TEMPEST certification, and secure KVM that exceeds NIAP 4.0 - depth a generalist vendor rarely matches.
Design, manufacturing, assembly, testing and support kept in-house and stateside. TAA-compliant by construction - not by paperwork after the fact.
SIPR/NIPR hardware isolation, TEMPEST-certified zero clients, and integrated SIPRNet tokens. Separation is engineered into the device, not layered on in software.
Endpoints, hosts, KVM, software and support from a single specialist, with custom configuration and branding - useful when a project has to be certified end to end.
"Reliability for critical operations and high-security environments."
- ClearCube, on the standard its government customers hold it to
Based on stated target verticals and public case references.
ClearCube is a manufacturer first. It sells secure endpoint hardware and centralized-computing systems directly and through OEM/reseller and government procurement channels - including QEB and contract awards.
Revenue is reinforced by management software, custom configuration and branding, and US-based support and services - the recurring, relationship-driven layer around the hardware sale.
In the broad thin-client and VDI-endpoint market, ClearCube competes with far larger names - Dell Wyse, HP, IGEL and 10ZiG among them. On raw volume it does not win. Its position is chosen deliberately: the high-security, certification-heavy corner of the market where "made in the USA," TEMPEST certification and hardware-level network isolation are non-negotiable.
In the secure KVM segment it lines up against specialists like Vertiv/Avocent, Belkin/Cybex and High Sec Labs. Here the differentiator is integration - KVM, endpoints and tokens designed to work together and certified as a set. That end-to-end, single-vendor story is what a defense buyer values when the alternative is stitching a compliant system together from parts.
The strategic bet is durable: some workloads will never move fully to the cloud, and some desks will always need a physically secure endpoint. ClearCube built its whole business on that last three feet.
Andrew Heller and Barry Thornton launch the company (originally Vicinity Systems) to centralize computing and "clear the cube" of desktop PCs.
Layne comes aboard and later becomes President & CEO, steering the company through the VDI era.
About a third of revenue comes from financial-services virtual infrastructure, the rest from healthcare and government.
ClearCube raises its last venture round (~$18M), part of roughly $83M raised in total.
Introduces Teradici PC-over-IP thin/zero clients and spins off its software arm as VDIworks.
Reports 50% year-over-year revenue growth and acquires Dallas-based Network Elites, expanding cloud services.
Relocates to new, expanded facilities in the Austin, Texas area.
Launches next-generation Trusted Zero Clients built on HP PCoIP with zero-trust design principles.
Selected by the US Air Force as its trusted zero client provider via a QEB contract award.
President & CEO. Joined in 2001; 35+ years in sales and marketing.
Crosby Marks (Customer Support), Andrew Harrison (Marketing), Jeannie Rodgers (Finance), Jonathan Langham (Operations) - a small, long-tenured team.
PCoIP protocol powering ClearCube zero clients and the latest Trusted Zero Clients.
VDI brokers, Blast Extreme support, endpoint/cloud integration and processor platforms. Named on CRN's Virtualization 100 list.
• US Air Force trusted zero client provider (2025)
• First-to-market fiber-connected & multi-level-security zero clients
• CRN Virtualization 100 recognition
• TAA-compliant, TEMPEST-certified, SIPRNet-integrated lines
• ~30 years of continuous US manufacturing
• Originally founded as "Vicinity Systems."
• Co-founder Andrew Heller was an IBM Fellow - one of IBM's top technical honors.
• The name literally means clearing PC clutter out of the office cube.
• In 2008 it spun off its software arm as VDIworks.
• CEO Doug Layne has led the company for 20+ years.
ClearCube publishes webinars and product walkthroughs on its site and YouTube channel, including an end-to-end secure IT solutions session.
Sources: clearcube.com, Wikipedia, PRWeb, CIO Influence, ZoomInfo, CB Insights. Figures approximate where noted.