VMware has announced it is rebranding its virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) as VMware View, hoping to slash storage requirements and enable mobile workers to access their virtual desktop on the move.
Jocelyn Goldfein, general manager, desktop business unit at VMware, said the developments were driven by the need to provide a more flexible offering. IT departments are aware of the need to reduce costs, but also know that end users demand that their information is constantly available at all times.
“The desktop is the next big frontier for VMware and virtualisation,” said Goldfein. “We think machine virtualisation has the same capacity to transform desktops as it has demonstrably transformed data centres.”
The release of VMware View 3 features a platform called View Composer, which used to be called Scalable Virtual Images. It enables IT departments to create a centralised master template with user data stored separately. VMware hopes this will reduce storage costs by up to 90%.
View Composer will enable fast provisioning so patches and other updates can be pushed out centrally. VMware says this will dramatically reduce the amount of storage space needed for virtual desktops.
Another element that VMware has added to its offering is Offline Desktop. This will enable workers to access their virtualised desktops via a laptop.
Tommy Armstrong, VMware’s senior product marketing manager, desktop products, said: “We’re bringing together a number of VMware technologies, such as the concept of the classic VDI and VMware ACE, which enables security policies that the enterprise can set to govern the behaviour of a desktop.”
“With this release, a user can be connected to a virtual desktop over the network, but then if the user wants to run that virtual machine locally, they can ‘check out’ the virtual desktop and boot it up locally. So you’re running that same machine, any files or applications you have stored locally will still be there. The virtual machine is executing on the local machine.”
When ready, users can ‘check’ the machine back in, or ‘check in’ a backup or delta file, which will automatically update the server image.
Armstrong said one of the driving forces behind this offering was to help enterprises with remote workers: “For enterprises with users operating from great distances, it makes more sense to execute the virtual desktop locally, but you still want to be based on the original template and wish to retain an element of control in terms of pushing out updates, which you can do overnight, for example.”
