latoga labs

Today VMware announced the general availability of VMware View 3.  VMware View is more than just the next release and rebranding of VMware’s VDI solution, it is the first step in the vClient initiative that was announced at VMworld 2008.

VMware View 3 is the solution that allow corporate desktops to be centrally managed and run from within the data center.  VMware View consists of the following pieces:

• VMware View Composer - utilizes Linked Clone technology to speed the creation of virtual desktops while reducing the operating cost of the desktops through utilizing less storage
• VMware ThinApp - enables simplified application packaging and deployment to virtual desktops and allows the application layer to be separated from the Operating System layer
• Offline Desktop - provides the flexibility to intelligently and securely move virtual desktops between the data center and a local laptop or desktop (experimental mode only)
• Unified Access - provides end users with a single point of access to seamlessly connect to their desktop environment and administrators with a single point of administration
• Virtual Printing - enables end users to print to any local or network printer without installing specific printer drivers
• Multimedia Redirection - improves the user experience with rich multimedia playback capabilities processed remotely in the data center and delivered to the end user’s device

In the past few weeks I have been briefing a number of my Fortune 500 clients on the VMware View solution for managing their desktops.  VMware View allows them to reduce not only their capital expenditures but also their operational expenditures while providing a much more secure and robust desktop experience to their end users.  These same benefits can be applied to companies large and small.  VMware even provides a TCO/ROI calculator that incorporates all the new benefits of VMware View 3, so you can measure the benefits yourself.

I’ll be sharing more of my experiences working with these customers and VMware View in the comming months.

As I leaked out early this morning via Twitter, VMware has a Cyber Monday deal on Fusion.   Visit the VMware store and enter the coupon code “CyberMondayDeal“.  You have to hurry as this offer expires at 11:59PM PT today.

If you happen to be a user of Parallels or Virtual PC 7.0 and want to upgrade to Fusion, there is also a competitive upgrade rebate that is going on.

If you combine the Cyber Monday Deal with the competitive upgrade rebate, you can get Fusion for 9.99! (not including tax/s&h)

I have been running a Virtual Machine on my laptop daily for over 3 years now and been using it regularly for over 6 years (well before joining VMware); since moving to the Mac, Fusion has allowed me to keep leveraging virtualization locally on my MacBook Pro  to boost my productivity.  Use these deals to pick up your copy of Fusion today.

VMware is holding a pair of Virtualization Forums, one day mini-conference designed to bring together virtualization experts and clients from within a region of the United States.  There are two Forums happening in December:

• December 3, 2008: San Diego
• December 11, 2008: Boston

A customer of mine attending one last year in Atlanta and indicated it was an excellent networking and learning event.  If you happen to be in one of these two cities, look into attending the Virtualization Forum.

VMware recently announced the Public Beta of VMware Converter 4.0.  Converter 4.0 will support physical to virtual (p2v) conversion of Linux and W2k8 system.  For more information and to sign up for the Beta, see the full announcment on the VMware Converter Community Forum.

Another release today from VMware: Lab Manager 3.0.1 was recenty released.  While this is a maintenance release, some of the items inlcuded in this release are:

• Support for running Lab Manager on English (US, UK, AUS), French, German, Italian, and Japanese versions of Microsoft Windows 2003
• Optimization for higher scalability and lower response time
• Support for VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.5 Update 3
• Ability to transfer ownership of Lab Manager objects such as network templates, virtual machine templates, configurations, and media files between different organizations.

Full details about this release can be found in the Release Notes.

(Unfortunately, this announcement comes a day late for my customer who was upgrading his LM2.x installation to 3.0 last night…  :-O ).