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VMware View 5.1 & New View Clients Available

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Today VMware View 5.1 is available for download.  While additional details are available in the release notes, here are highlights of the changes in 5.1:

  • Storage performance optimization & integration options leveraging vSphere
    • View Storage Accelerator:
    • View Composer API Integration(Tech Preview):
    • Customizable View Composer disposable disk driver letter
    • Support up to 32 ( increased from 8 ) host in a cluster when Network Attached Storage is in use
  • USB redirection enhancement
  • RADIUS based two-factor authentication support
  • Admin UI usability and performance enhancements
  • Support pre-created Active Directory machine accounts
  • Customer Experience Improvement Program
  • Persona Management for physical devices
  • Persona Management as a XP to Win7 migration tool
  • Support Installation of View Composer server in a standalone server separate from vCenter server
  • A set of new View Clients
  • Continue PCoIP protocol performance enhancements

A new release of the View Clients is also available on the View Client Download Center.  New features and enhancements in the View Clients include:

  •  What’s New in ALL View Clients
    • Optimized for VMware View 5.1
    • Up to 3X better video playback performance
    • Improved mouse responsiveness in virtual machine
    • RADIUS two factor authentication with VMware View 5.1
  • What’s New in ALL Mobile View Clients 1.5
    • Save password option if administrator enables new VMware View 5.1 policy
    • French, German, Spanish keyboard support with VMware View 5.1
    • Direct Korean language input support with VMware View 5.1
    • Touch in text fields brings up keyboard with VMware View 5.1
  • Windows – What’s New in View Client 5.1
    • Local mode supports hardware version 8 virtual machines with VMware View 5.1
  • Linux – What’s New in View Client 1.5
    • New ARM based Linux client for Thin Client partner integration
  • Mac – What’s New in View Client 1.5
    • Initial support for Mac OS X Mountain Lion
    • Greatly improved audio/video synchronization
    • Resolve mouse tracking problems when switching to and from View client
  • iPad –  What’s New in View Client 1.5
    • Support for the new iPad
    • Updated look and feel
    • Extended software keyboard keys no longer cover Start menu and task bar with external keyboards
  • Android – What’s New in View Client 1.5
    • Support for Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS)
    • Mouse support with hover, right click and scroll wheel on ICS
    • Updated look and feel and improvements for smaller screens
    • New Settings dialog includes security mode settings

VMware View 3 Released

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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.

Is The Future VDI + Employee Owned Laptops?

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A few weeks ago I was casually talking with one of my enterprise clients about VDI. This client has a few VDI enabled desktops in their enterprise primarily for users who demand high powered systems for computationally intense work (it was cheaper for the company to invest in a small VDI infrastructure with powerful servers for these users than buying true high end desktops…especially since this customer makes the powerful servers themselves).  My client mentioned how maybe he’ll just buy a MacBook Pro himself (a laptop he hasn’t been able to convince his employer to buy for him) and run his desktop as another VDI instance.

This is where I shot the conversation off on a tangent to talk about a friend of mine who was interviewing at a startup that expected him to buy his own laptop.  The surprising thing about the startup was that they just expected him to already own a laptop that he would be willing to use for work purposes.  I commented on how the future may be allowing employees to use what ever laptop they want for the work computer and the employer will just provide everyone a VDI desktop for use as their “corporate desktop”.  This definitely eases the administration, security, and hardware refresh burden for the company.  One would just expect some sort of stipend for the employee to go toward a personal laptop computer.  (I’m purposely leaving the hardware support issue out of the conversation, but with Apple Stores proliferating this could be the outsourced hardware support for my MacBook craving client.)

So I was surprise this week when I received my latest copy of CIO magazine and found an article asking Is It Time For Employee-Provisioned Hardware Programs? Some analysts are saying that this is the next logical step in consumerization of IT, especially when you see how many non-approved smart phones, or laptops are already finding their way into corporate workplace (I’ve done this myself with my previous employeer…but that’s another story). Why fight the trend?  With VDI, IT Executives can make their end users happy by letting them use whatever hardware they like, install any applications they want on the hardware (they own it, and there is only one application on the hardware that IT cares about…the VDI client).  They can make their finance people happy by reducing the endless cycle of desktop hardware refreshes by using VDI to run the desktops on server hardware and use VDI to scale user’s CPU and Memory “power” as needed by the users business workload.  They can also keep the security people happy by providing a locked down environment that lives in the data center.

I can see this being a total desktop solution that more and more companies will start implementing in the near future.

Let’s just hope that the hardware stipends are reasonable…