Virtual Desktop Blog

Day in the life of a remote user using VMware View with PCoIP

wponder — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:15:13 GMT

It has almost been one year since I started being able to use the PCoIP software implementation we have been collaborating on. There has been a lot of questions about how is PCoIP for WAN delivered desktops?

There is no doubt or question delivering a desktop experience across the WAN is one of the most challenging aspects of virtual desktops. From extremely low bandwidth, high latency environments to wildly imaginative ideas of what it takes to deliver a rich PC like experiance. The great part for customers is loads of R&D dollars have been going into this area for the last few years and every day the possibilities expand further. PCoIP was one of the first technoliges to tackle the most demanding needs of high end users across the WAN by delivering 3D initially with their hardware solution.

Putting aside religion for the moment; regarding what realistically can be delivered across a WAN, what it really takes to do it and the pros and cons of any given approach. I simply wanted to share a day in my life. I have been working from some type of WAN delivered desktop for 8 plus years now. Sure, I have a laptop and it sits right beside me in my case waiting for my next trip. Even when traveling, I primarily connect to my remote virtual desktop.

One exmple of walking the talk, at VMworld 2009 I delivered my presentation using a early beta version of PCoIP from the same remote virtual desktop I work in everyday. Not something I personally have seen done at other large events That is just how natural it comes to me, though. If you have a VMworld login you can watch that session here.

For a little bit of background. I primarily work remotely from my home office in Boise. My Virtual Desktop is hosted somewhere in Palo Alto. Currently, it resides in what I call the wild wild west because it is our engineering View Manger environment that is always running the most recent beta or released version of View Manager. Client and agents are always mismatched and I never know when one of the offline engineers is checking out one or more VMs. No, I am not recommending you do the same. I just have not gotten around to having my VM moved .

My home connectivity is cable with a standard 10MB down, 1MB up connection. My VPN connection to Palo Alto is limited to 1MB.

I share this connection with another full time work from home user.

My typical latency is to my virtual desktop in Palo Alto is 45ms depending on what is going on. It was 400ms the other day during a large FTP transfer.

While writing this blog entry and recording the video below my connectivity was well below my subscription with my uplink only reaching 255Kbps. While working CSI on CBS.com was being watched by someone else.

I have dual line Vonage VoIP service shared across the same cable connection.

My thin client is a WES based thin client with dual 19" monitors at 1280x1024 32bit color

My Virtual Desktop is configured with a single vGPU and 785 Mbytes of RAM

My desktop current has themeing turned on and my desktop settings are set to maximize for appearance not performance.

My daily activity is connecting to my remote virtual desktop from my thin client across the standard VMware Juniper SSL VPN. Their policy is to limit each connection to 1MB.

This is a day in the life of my virtual desktop experience. I do all my day to day work in my virtual desktop along side the barrage of conference calls. Web Browsing, Email, Instant Messaging. All my product requirements docs, presentations, even this blog are all done remotely.

I have made a short video below demonstrating my remote virtual desktop in Palo Alto connecting from here in Boise using the GA version of VMware View with PCoIP. Because could be hard to see here is an inventory of what I have had running over the last few weeks ( I am really bad about cleaning things up)

Outlook with 24 open / draft emails
8 Word Docs
Two PowerPoint presentations
17 Firefox tabs
1 instance of calculator
8 Internet Explorer tabs
1 Command Window
2 instances of Paint
1 instance of Pidgin IM

{youtube}"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icWEs9b6RZA" height="385" width="640"{youtube}

VMware View 4 with PCoIP

wponder — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:18:24 GMT

Recently we announced VMware View 4. One of the most exciting and fulfilling things for the RDE team and myself was the collaboration with our partner Teradici to bring a software implementation of a next generation display protocol ( PCoIP ) to market. It has been a lot of work, on a really compressed schedule. In addition to Teradici. I also want to extend a special thanks as well to the entire View partner community. Everyone of our partners have stepped up to rally behind View with PCoIP and in many cases have gone above and beyond to work with us adjusting their own schedules and investing their own R&D efforts to help make this a success.

In addition to the existing VMware View partners I also want to thank and welcome the existing Teradici OEM partners who have come on-board as VMware partners.

These efforts further extend VMware Views ability to offer the most broad range of soft client, thin client, zero client and integrated display options in the market.

For anyone who is still wondering what works with what. I hope the following will clarify any quesions you might have. The goal for us is pretty simple. Deliver a solution that enables IT organizations to adress their users from the task worker to the designer. For anyone who does not know. Teradici has been OEMing technology to main stream hardware leaders such as Dell, IBM, ClearCube and others who build solutions that address the highend demanding needs of designers needing remotely delivered 3D for several years now. Starting out with their hardware to hardware based solutions. Working together, we have broght that same technology in a software implementation to Virtual Desktops with VMware View.

A common goal we have is to provide compatibility between both the hardware and software implantations to ensure cusotmers have the most broad choice and seamless experiance when using both. By unifying support for both using VMware View. Customers instantly have the most simple integrated solution for addressing users from the task worker to the designer.

The most common question we get is how does that work? VMware and Teradici are working closely together to ensure interoperability betwen both hardware and software based components. Some time back, we did the bulk of the work in VMware View so it could handle brokering PCoIP hardware based solutions. In the end, customers have the option to choose from any of the following combinations of client and backend options when planning their deployments and addressing specific user needs.

VMware View software client <---------> Virtual Desktops

VMware View software client <---------> PCoIP enabled Blade PCs

PCoIP zero clients <-------> Virtual Desktops

PCoIP zero clients <-------> PCoIP enabled Blade PCs

PCoIP zero clients from all the leading manufactures such as WYSE, DevonIT, Dell, ClearCube, EVGA, ELSA, Samsung etc. will all be VMware View compatible.

In addition to PCoIP zero clients. Traditional thin clients using the VMware View client for Windows and Linux will be available from VMware thin client partners. We are also working closely with thin client partners who offer unique differentiating custom and embedded OS solutions as well.

It's only the begining and our first step toward more exciting things to come in short order.

Citix admits PCoIP is better than ICA on the LAN?

wponder — Tue, 05 May 2009 22:58:08 GMT

This year I was not able to attend Synergy, but I have been getting real time reports from friends and associates who are there. So, there will not be any notifications of failed demo's from me. I have been getting reports second hand from the show that Mark Templton has made some surprising comments and positioning on stage during the keynote.

Note!!!!! This is all second hand, call it FUD, bull or whatever you want. I was not there and did not hear it first hand.

First there was a demonstration of some of the existing and future capabilities of HDX. Things like Multimedia redirection that we have been shipping with View for some time now for RDP. During this part of the keynote there was a comparison to an unnamed protocol. I can only venture to guess that would be RDP and the comparison showed ICA performing better. Surprisingly there are reports that it was stated that the other protocol was equal to ICA on the LAN. Again, this is why I am assuming why the comparison was to RDP.

Afterwards, it was reported that was followed by a statement that PCoIP is better on the LAN than ICA. Of course, we would also agree with that.

If the reports are true which I hope they are, that only leaves the WAN and some outlying feature functionality. There is no question that the ICA team has been plugging away at WAN challenges for a long time. Some of that changes with PortICA as they work to unify the core protocol features between ICA and PortICA. That said, the bar is set.

Brian Madden's live blogging was one of the sources I saw the reports from. You can also follow along here....

Check out the 11:27 and 11:30 time stamp - http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/brianmadden/archive/2009/05/05/live-blogging-the-citrix-synergy-keynote.aspx

The biggest question many have is what VMware and Teradici are doing? I have not been doing the best job sharing information here as the 1:1 interaction has been a bit overwhelming.

One of my goals is to improve that. However, I was able to give both Brian Madden and Chris Wolf sneak peaks a few months back.

http://www.chriswolf.com/?p=239

http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/tv/archive/2009/02/26/brian-madden-tv-episode-3-vmworld-europe-2009-news-amp-wrap-up.aspx

For anyone that did not have the chance to see my VMwold presentation at VMworld EMEA. The goal is clear. Provide a dispaly protocol fit for users from the Task worker to the Designer. That includes both the LAN and the WAN. We do not want to just provide the best user experiance on the LAN but we also want to provide the best experiance on the WAN as well. Through our partnership and co-development with Teradici and based on the inital feedback we feel we are on the right track. In the end, cusotmers will have a broad array of solutions to choose from both physical and virtual including both tera enabled portals and soft clients all supported and managed with VMware View Manager.

Understand, anyone that has not seen what we have is skeptical and it is our responsibility to prove otherwise. Stay tuned for that, as we have more to come, and more to share and are working hard to bring it to you sooner rather than later.

The Secret is out - PCoIP Software Implementation

wponder — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:02:01 GMT

VMworld Europe 2009 is a wrap and despite the economic challenges everyone is facing across the world the turnout was amazing. One of the most exciting parts of the show for me was being able to demonstrate an early preview of the software to software implementation of PCoIP that we have been working on through our co-development agreement with Teradici.

This really is no secret, we announced our strategic partnership with Teradici last September at VMworld 2008 in Las Vegas Nevada. Since, we have been working hard to bring the best remote display solution to market based on Teradici's next generation display protocol PCoIP. A combined VMware, Teradidici solution leveraging VMware View Manager will allows us to deliver an enhanced solution to desktop organizations that enables them to target users from task worker to the designer, remotely accessing their virtual desktop both from the LAN or the WAN using a single display protocol with an uncompromising user experiance. Combined with VMware View Managers support for multiple protocols, we can offer cusomters a solution with the broadest array of choice in display protocols and client access devices.

For everyone that was not able to attend VMworld 2009. On day two, Steve Herrod and Jerry Chen provided an update on our progress to dated wrapping up with a live demo of a Teradici hardware to hardware based solution. The full Keynote and demo can be seen here VMworld 2009 Day 2 Keynote

In addition to the Keynote, there was quite a bit of coverage from the blogging and analyst community around our PCoIP efforts. Below I have pulled together several bits of commentary I have been able to find.

Totally unplanned and pulled together on the fly, I was able to sit down with Brian Madden and give him the first sneak peak of a PCoIP software to software demo. This can be found on Brian Madden TV along with interviews from Microsoft, Redhat and Citrix.

I also was able to find an interview with Peter Ghostine, CTO of Quest Software. Interestingly, in this interview with Eric Sloof, Peter tries to explain what the VMware remote display strategy is? He shares his skepticism regarding what can be acheived with PCoIP. Peter primarily focuses on attempting to cast a shroud of doubt regarding the WAN capabilities of PCoIP. Quest has been betting on RDP and has been building RDP enhancements for some time now. Features such as MMR, similar to the technology we OEMed from WYSE. In addition, to psudo multimonitor and more needed features such as latency reduction etc..

On that note, I was also able to sit down with Chris Wolf. Chris Wolf is a Sr. Analyst with the Burton Group covering the virtualization space, focusing on the Desktop to the Datacenter. I had a little more time with Chris and was able to demonstrate the current progress we have made with software to software PCoIP under a variety of network conditions including both the LAN and the WAN. Chris shares his thoughts and observations here - VMware's Software PCoIP - A Sighting!

Last but not least, Gerben Kloosterman attended a presentation I gave on the future of the VMware View Remote Display Experiance. Gerben did an excellent job capturing the Q&A at the end sharing that information on his blog for anyone not able to attend. For more information visit Gerben's Blog on Virtualization.

Tolly Report : Virtual Desktop Implementation VMware View 3 Premier vs. Citrix XenDesktop Enterprise 2.1

wponder — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:31:27 GMT

Complexity is one the most important factors and considerations as people move more of their physical desktops toward virtual desktops. Complexity inherently introduces risk and increases the chance for failure and additional cost. One thing I have always said, is we are building and designing a solution from the ground up to enable a new way do doing things in a virtual world. We are not trying to retro fit legacy products to work in a virtual world.

One of the things that impresses me the most about the engineering talent at VMware is the level of effort and willingness to listen to customer needs and requirements and wring out the complexity ultimately simplifying things for the customer. This comes at price to us, it takes time, effort, willingness to listen, and a desire to provide customer focused service. All well worth the price.

Recently we worked with an "independent performance consultancy The Tolly Group" to compare the differences of what it takes to get a mission critical solution such as a Virtual Desktop solution up and running using VMware View or Citrix XenDesktop in a timely, efficient, cost effective manner.

The independent Tolly Group invited both VMware and Citrix to support them as they built VMware View 3 Premier and Citrix XenDesktop Enterprise 2.1 side by side to understand the level of effort required to get each solution deployed and up and running. Initially accepting the invitation, Citrix later decided not to participate. To help ensure the highest level of success we pointed Tolly to the Getting Started with Citrix XenDesktop 2.1 guide and other documentation publicly available on the Citrix web site.

Attached is the findings report and results from Tolly, which can also be obtained from the Tolly Group web site.

Citrix XenDesktop 3 was recently announced and mostly is comprised of adding more of the SpeedScreen technologies to PortICA as it lags in comparison to the feature functionality available from XenApp ICA. It also encompasses enhancements of other technologies such as MMR, called HDX MediaStream and USB enhancements, things we have been shipping with VMware View for some time now. Nothing in the announcement or the XenDesktop 3.0 documentation currently availalbe indicates any improvement of the complexity detailed in this Toll report.

VMware View Reference Architecture

wponder — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:35:40 GMT

I am well past do for a post and some might think we have fallen off the face of the planet. For the last six months I have been heads down planning, coordinating, validating and writing the first VMware View Reference Architecture.

This has been a lengthy project that had some very well defined scope from the beginning. Honestly, I allowed the scope to creep, as I felt the effort and output would go much further to benefit cusotmers and partners.

First, I would like to thank everyone who helped ensure the project was successful. I would like to especially like to thank our partners at EMC whom allowed us to leverage their Validation Facility in Santa Clara allowing us to build and validate the RA itself. In addition to providing us a place to validate future efforts. They have a world class facility where we can validate customer solutions as well.

Second, this effort is only one of many to come. The foundation we have laid allows us to rapidly change and add components or used cases based on the core architecture we have already validated. This first reference architecture effort primarily focuses on desktop replacement in the enterprise and other use cases will follow.

The first release of the reference architecture is availalbe from the following location - http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/1084

One of the documents that we intended to include but, were not able to finalize, was a document around the networking aspects of our efforts. We have received numerous requests for information on the networking specifically the load balancing and layer 2/3 configs and VLANs. Although we do not have a specific recomended design yet, we have been doing quite a bit of work in the labs in this area and have some information that might be useful to some. Later I plan to post some of the configs from some of our lab work here so check back.

Lastly, there are two other documents that I am working on and I hope to release those in the next few weeks.

vClient Initiative - Future Display Protocol Direction

wponder — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:13:00 GMT

As part of the VMware vClient initiative, VMware has announced a strategic partnership with Teradici to include Teradici's PC-Over-IP technology as part of VMware View.

VMware will license the Teradici PC-Over-IP display protocol and will work with Teradici to co-develop and expand PC-Over-IP.

The PC-Over-IP display protocol is breakthrough technology that truly delivers a PC experiance unlike any legacy protocol available today. Unlike traditional server based computing display protocols, PC-Over-IP was designed from the ground up to deliver a PC like experiance delivering capabilities that have challenged legacy display protocols for over a decade.

By working together, VMware and Teradici can deliver an uncompressed remote desktop experience over existing standard local area networks as well as high-latency wide area networks, and provide both integrated software and hardware implementations of Teradici's PC-over-IP solution.

This joint effort will enable IT organizations to include a broader set of use cases with their current desktop efforts using a single solution.

In effort to provide continued support for customer choice and heterogenous VMware View based solution offerings, VMware View and VMware, will also continue to support and collaborate with partners that offer alternative display protocol solutions such as HP - RGS, Microsoft - RDP, Sun Microsystems - Sun Ray and Panologic.

vClient Initiative

wponder — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:38:00 GMT

For anyone that was not able to attend VMworld this year; I want to take a second and share with you some exciting news that came out though several announcements.

We are entering the second phase of a long term strategy as VMware continues to add value and evolve the way we use desktop and personal computing as we know it today.

The vClient initiative continues to build on the VMware VDI efforts that were pioneered by VMware several years ago to help solve desktop challenges faced by all IT organizations with distributed PC and traditional server based computing solutions. As Enterprises have rapidly moved toward adopting VMware VDI as their standard for server side hosted desktop deployments, cusotmers are now ready to expand the same value and benifits they have received from VMware VDI to client virtual desktops.

VMware View is a suite of products that deliver users a single consistent personalized view of all their applications and data called "myview".

As part of the vClient initiative, VMware View will include new technologies such as client virtualization, image management using VMware View Composer and offline desktop.

Client Virtualization runs on laptop and desktop
computers and provides a robust layer that tightly manages user devices
cost-effectively while providing a PC-like end-user experience. Client
virtualization will also provide a centralized management solution to
administer, deploy and update applications and operating system images
across desktops and laptops.

VMware View™ Composer, an advanced desktop image
management solution, allows customers to reduce storage requirements by
up to 90 percent while reducing desktop provisioning time from hours to
just minutes. VMware View Composer will make updating and patching
seamless to desktop users and efficient for IT administrators while
retaining individual user data and settings. Now IT staff can
streamline management and manage thousands of desktops while
guaranteeing that all use systems are up to date.

Offline Desktop provides an innovative new way for
organizations to operate in a virtual desktop environment by enabling
users to access their server hosted desktops offline. Offline Desktop
will let users run their virtual desktops locally for the best user
experience, while simplifying life for IT staff by enabling desktops,
whether run locally or centrally, to be managed through the same
administration framework.

For more information visit VMware View

More clarity on VECD

wponder — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:24:00 GMT

Despite the VECD licensing model having been availalbe for some time now, including a lot of content that explains how it works. It still seems to be plagued with a shroud of mystery.On a weekly basis it seems I get a report or question from a customer or partner that is struggling to get VECD pricing or a clear explanation on how it works.

Recently Microsoft updated some of the VECD content and it appears they have taken another stab at simplifying what is needed when purchasing VECD. They also cover several uses cases detailing how VECD devices should be licensed in several differant scenarios.

Click here for the new Microsoft VECD Quick Reference Guide

In addition, Patrick Rouse over at Provision recently went through the trial and tribulations for everyone and collected all of the VECD SKUs the SKUs Patrick's blog entry can be found here - Microsoft Licensing Requirements for Desktop Virtualization

VMware VDI - VDM 2.1 Reviewer's Guide now available

wponder — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:33:00 GMT

I am pleased to announce the availability of the VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewer's Guide. I had the honor of working with Doug Brown, founder of DABCC, well known expert and long time contributor to the Server Based Computing, Application Delivery and Virtualization communities. Many of you might be familiar with Doug Brown's Methodology in Box (MIAB) deployment and install guides. Doug's MIAB takes a step-by-step approach to deploying and installing server based computing and virtualization products.

By taking a simple step-by-step real world approach MIAB can ensure audiences from all levels of technical aptitude and background are ensured a successful deployment.

Partnering with Doug for the creation of the VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewer's Guide just made sense. Who better to help create this guide. The VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewers Guide is a subset of a typical DABCC (MIAB), with the goal to provide a step-by-step guide for people interested in evaluating VMware VDI for their VMware based VDI deployments. By using the the VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewer's Guide new comer to VMware VDI and VDM 2.0 can quickly and easily get a full VMware VDI environment up and running for evaluation.

At a later date Doug will follow-up this work with a more extensive MIAB available from DABCC.

For more information about DABCC please visit - www.dabcc.com

The VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewer's Guide can be found here - VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewer's Guide

VMware VDI - VDM 2.1 Released

wponder — Tue, 27 May 2008 23:17:00 GMT

Today I am excited to share VDM 2.1 has been released. We have quietly been working on this release and there was not a public beta. Although this release of VDM comes only a few short months after the initial release earlier this year there are quite a few exciting features.

Some of the features that have been added as as follows:

- Pools spanning datastores in order to better manage resources
- Localization of VDM Web Access and Client for Windows in Japanese and German
- Command line parameters for VDM Client
- Integrate MMR multimedia extensions DLL with VDM Client (Windows XP)
- Allow end users to change password
- Multiple sessions per user within a pool
- Improvements to logging
- Allow end users to restart their VM
- Defined process for bulk import of individual desktops
- VDM Configuration Backup (command-line only)
- Allow blocking of incoming RDP connections that are not from VDM Clients
- Allow VDM administrators to set default desktop (command line only)

More information, documentation and downloads can be found here:
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vdi_pubs.html

Also in support of this release we have announced a certification program for thin client manufactures who want to integrate with VMware VDI using several integration methods that streamline the user experience and deployment of VMware VDI based solutions.
http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/thinclient.html

VMware Project North Star ( Thinstall )

wponder — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:51:00 GMT

I am pleased to share with everyone the first public Beta release of VMware Project North Star ( Thinstall ) is now available for download.

VMware Project North Star (Thinstall) will be the first branded version of Thinstall application virtualization technology.

This beta is the first step towards launch of a fully supported and widely available release of the technology as a VMware product. We are excited to enable VMware customers - both existing and new - to experience the benefits of application virtualization firsthand from within the VMware community.

Intrested in How to get the software? Go to http://www.vmware.com/go/thinstall

Beta Participant Support

There is no active support available for this Beta release of VMware Thinstall . However, VMware welcomes and appreciates your feedback. You can file any product suggestions directly onto the VMware community forum. If you run into problems installing or using the product, we suggest using the following excellent resources:

VMware community forum:

http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/northstar

Product documentation:

http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/northstar/project_north_star_beta_manual.pdf

Sales Inquiries

Thinstall 3.3 is available for purchase today. All customers who order Thinstall 3.3 today are eligible for an automatic upgrade to the VMware Project North Star (Thinstall) product when it is generally available (GA). Please contact sales@thinstall.com, your VMware Sales team or VMware Partner for any sales inquiries on Thinstall 3.3.

Please stay tuned to www.vmware.com/go/thinstall There will be another beta shortly and it aims to include some very exciting features!

What will Citrix do?

wponder — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:49:00 GMT

I wanted to wait till the smoke cleared before sharing some thoughts regarding Microsoft opening the specifications on several of its APIs and communication protocols. Part of the released technology was the specification of RDP.

For VMware VDI, this is probably the most interesting of the released protocol specifications. The initial impact to customers may not be that obvious. However, over time, the benefits could be huge. RDP is the preferred protocol for accessing VMware VDI based desktops. Currently, this makes the most sense to leverage as there is no added cost in doing so which is typically the case with third party add on protocols.

Although getting the optimal performance in broad set of network conditions can be tricky, but it's quite adequate in the highest majority of desktop replacement use cases. RDP has always had virtual channels which allow a third party to add feature functionality to RDP. For example, with VDM 2 we developed a generic USB device redirector that allows you to connect most USB devices, not supported by RDP to a client access device and make them available for use with your VMware VDI virtual desktop.

In order for third parties to leverage virtual channels, you either needed a team of lawyers and a chunk of change or some really good engineers that could reverse engineer. For some time now there have been licensees of the RDP spec and others who reverse engineered it in effort to add value. This included people building feature add-ons as well as full RDP client implementations. Open Source efforts such as RDesktop and commercial efforts from companies such as WYSE, VMware, ThinAnywhere, Provision Networks, Sun Microsystems, Calista and others have all contributed to enhancing RDP.

Over three years ago I started researching the use of VMware virtualization as a way to better manage and deliver desktop computing and overcome traditional server based computing short falls. As we started meeting with customers and sharing the vision of VDI it was becoming clear Citrix had lost their seat at the table. Customers were concerned with the issues surrounding Citrix as a solution, such as complexity, application compatibility and loss of a personal computing experience.

VMware VDI was resonating with IT organizations and desktop management teams as an answer for more broad desktop deployments. I was a little surprised, as no one can take away Citrix's past contributions to server based computing. It's always been my opinion Citrix and Microsoft had become comfortable with their position and the direction they were leading customers and the market.

As VMware VDI emerged it was becoming clear this was what customers wanted. I had not seen such vast interest and adoption of a desktop solution in a long time. Despite Microsoft attempting to down play interest, VECD emerged. As Citrix lost ground trying to protect the Presentation Server stronghold, they finally broke down, did a 360 degree about face, and sank 500M on XenSource.

Since they have renamed their legacy products and are attempting to broaden their vision beyond just "Application Delivery". Here at VMware we are building things from the ground up with virtualization in mind, not trying to retro fit legacy solutions to fit in a virtual world. Since the emergence of VMware VDI, millions of dollars are going into the R&D of network delivered desktops and applications. The result is innovation that improves user experience, desktop management and choice for IT organizations.

What does this mean for Citrix? For years there have been the conspiracy theories that Microsoft will buy Citrix. Over the years I have seen less and less evidence or reason to believe this, but I guess it could happen. For some time now, I have said Citrix is getting squeezed from the top by VMware and squeezed from the bottom by Microsoft. The crown jewel for Citrix is ICA. Without that, there is not a lot there you can't get from other cheaper more simple alternatives.

With the acquisition of Calista by Microsoft, it's clear they intended to continue the enhancement of RDP. With the RDP spec now open, more and more engineers can come to the party and rapidly further enhance RDP improving its performance and features in a broad array of use cases. With the XenSource acquisition, Citrix has dipped a toe in the open source world. Now that Micosoft has openly published the RDP specification, will Citrix set ICA free? Do they have any other choice? What long term value does ICA have with so many big companies now able to enhance RDP and in fact, already doing so?

VMware - vmSight webcast

wponder — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:21:00 GMT

vmSight the leader in virtual network intelligence will be hosting a webcast detailing how VMware VDI and vmSight can be used to gain stronger and sustainable HIPPA and PCI compliance. The webcast will be hosted Feburary 26th and there is still time to register.

Executives, IT auditors and systems administrators responsible for validating security and compliance in virtual environments or others who are considering the move to a virtual environment and want to understand how they can benefit while addressing regulatory compliance concerns should consider taking the time to listen in.

For more information and registration please visit the following URL

Achieve Stronger and Sustainable HIPAA and PCI Compliance with Virtual Desktops

VMware VDI - XenDesktop success and failure

wponder — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:25:00 GMT

Currently I am traveling across Germany meeting with customers and partners. This morning, just after I finalized preparation for a presentation. I decided to hop over to dabcc.com for a quick peak at what is going on in the SBC and virtualization community.

The first article that caught my eye was an article from a system provider in South Africa, OAS. The OAS was offering a test drive of a VMware VDI virtual desktop, connecting through VDM 2 and a XenDesktop based desktop.

To set the stage here. When I am traveling I use a MAC. If I need to access my VMware VDI desktop I can remotely connect with it using Safari. I also have a local Windows based virtual machine I can use with Fusion if needed. Using my MAC from the meeting room, here in Germany I fired up Safari and browsed over to the the OAS site for XenDesktop access.

At first it appears XenDesktop could not detect what client I needed.

When the client detection failed I decided to try the manual client detection.

The client detection failed so I decided to go ahead and download it. It took about five minutes to download the MACICA_OSX.DMG.zip file. Once it competed, I decided to install it. At this point I got a little confused as the installer said it was installing the ICA client for Presentation Server. Am I connecting to Presentation Server or XenDesktop? I figured I would find out once the client was installed an I get the chance to connect with a desktop. Unfortunately, that did not happen though. For some reason the ICA client could not be installed?

After this, I decided to compare the out of box experience for VDM 2 delivering a desktop. First I put the VDM 2 URL in Safari. I was asked to accept a certificate from OAS as I have never been to their site before. After accepting the certificate I was presented with a login.

After entering the login info and launching the tunnel I was presented with a list of desktops I was entitled to use.

After selecting my desktop and connecting my desktop session was successfully connected.

In all fairness, MAC support for VDM 2 is only experimental. I am unsure and have not checked if XenDestkop is planning to support MAC clients once its released. It may have been unfair of me to expect XenDesktop to work from my MAC?