I wanted to do a live blog on the Keynote but my streaming audio collapsed so many times that I can’t write a decent article… but luckily Scott was in the room and he managed to publish an article a few minutes after the keynote ended. So read it here. Great stuff,
One of the problems with VDI…
One of the problems with VDI has always been RDP. Especially when connecting over a WAN. Key with VDI is, like Paul Maritz just stated in his keynote, is user experience. VMware just announced an alliance with Teradici to achieve a greater user experience for a true remote PC.
The protocol will be incorporated into a future release of the newly announced VMware View set of products that extend VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) to include both server hosted virtual desktops and client virtual desktops that can run on any laptop or desktop computer. VMware View will provide a personalized view of users’ desktops from any device, anywhere, while providing centralized management of desktops in the datacenter.
For more info on Teradici’s PC over IP check their website.
Expand Virtual Desktops with VMware View
oSo there have been a couple of major and innovative features and visions released over the last two days. But that’s not where it ends. The official VMworld hasn’t even begun yet and here’s the next announcement: VMware View.
So what will be announced today: VMware View Composer, VMware Offline Desktop and Client Virtualization which all are directly related to VDI.
VMware View Composer – Advanced image management for virtual desktops allows you to:
- Reduce storage cost and management by up to 90 percent
- Reduce desktop provisioning from 15 minutes to just seconds
- Manage hundreds of desktops from a single central image, retaining user settings when updating or patching service packs, application updates or even OS upgrades
- Roll back instantaneously, enabling customers to streamline management and guarantee that all user systems are up to date
- Reduce the number of images to manage
VMware Offline Desktop – Access virtual desktops whether online or offline to:
- Backup critical user data and applications for remote employees
- Create transparent user environments on the road or in the office
- Increase user productivity while decreasing management complexity and risks
- Harness local compute power for a superior PC-like end user experience while maintaining data back ups and settings
VMware Client Virtualization – With virtualization for laptops and desktops PCs you can:
- Reduce the number of PC images with hardware independent virtual desktops that run on each PC
- Provide centralized management of VDI users and virtual client users from the same management console
- Enable users to take advantage of local PC hardware for superior user experience and offline usage
So what more can I say than just wow… and again everything resolves around easier management, automation and reductions in resource needs… And indeed VMware View is what used to be VMware VDI.
update: you can find the formal announcement here.
vStorage
Chad just wrote an amazing article about what vStorage actually is. Besure to read this one!
vStorage has been something that VMware and EMC have been working together on for a long time, in fact, before it was called vStorage (which was recent) – it used to be called VMAS a name only engineers would like. In fact, we’ve been working on this from almost right after the original acquisition before the program even existed formally.
vCenter
So there’s a new term floating around “vCenter”. So what is vCenter?
vCenter provides comprehensive management of applications and infrastructure in this flexible, fluid environment and integrates with leading systems management vendors for seamless, end to end datacenter management.
So as spectacular as this may sound, it just VirtualCenter renamed. Although not every section of the VMware website as been changed accordingly, this is what vCenter is.
So I just noticed a couple of more “hidden” announcements. These announcements all deal about management and automation. And if you do the math you can probably link some of them back to certain acquisitions that VMware did recently.
So here’s the list of new vCenter add-ons:
- vCenter ConfigControl extends policy-based change and configuration management with automated enforcement across every aspect of the VDC-OS.
- vCenter CapacityIQ continuously analyzes and plans capacity to ensure optimal sizing of virtual machines, resource pools and the entire datacenters.
- vCenter Chargeback enables automated tracking of costs and chargeback to the business enabling IT to function as a utility with true visibility into operating costs.
- vCenter Orchestrator enables the development of customized workflows that automate operational tasks through a simple drag and drop interface, without the need for scripting.
- vCenter AppSpeed automatically ensures application performance levels. It monitors end user response time for applications, correlates these response times with different elements in the infrastructure, and triggers remedial actions to alleviate bottlenecks.
Combine these 5 with the ones that were already discovered but also in some way deal with management and automation: Host Profiles, Distributed vSwitches, Linked VC’s and vApp and you’ve probably got the ultimate Virtual Automated DataCenter… Only two question left. How is VMware going to top this? And how is the competition going to respond?