Desktop Virtualization on Ulitzer

VMware figures to push virtualization onto more desktops with the release next week of its next-generation View 4.0, advertised as the only purpose-built desktop virtualization solution in the industry.

The gussied-up vSphere-based widgetry, a gateway to the desktop as a managed service, is supposed to overcome the barriers of user experience, cost and scale that have so far limited the adoption of desktop virtualization to what VMware calls a “small niche group of industries.”

VMware claims View’s performance will match the most demanding environment while reducing desktop TCO by as much as 50%.

Virtualization is of course universally seen as increasing desktop security and compliance and eliminating application conflict, while giving IT control over data access and making provisioning and management a whole lot easier.

However, the cost of the infrastructure underpinning the virtual desktop – the servers, storage and networking – has made it a pricey proposition compared to simply buying a physical desktop.

VMware now claims to have pared the acquisition cost of a virtual desktop down and made it the same as a physical PC for the first time complements of a reference architecture that multiple infrastructure and desktop OEMs have pitched in on.

The formula assumes a repurposed PC and reportedly brings the cost per desk to between $600 and $800 with the opex cost of management potentially halved. Previously the best VMware could do on the capex side was 1.5x-2x the cost of a PC, according to VMware exec Raj Mallempati.

Mallempati says View 4.0 should get 16 VMs to a Nehalem core, up from six-10 in the last generation.

View harnesses vSphere for scale, performance and availability and optimizes server resources.

VMware says vSphere provides a common platform to provision and manage thousands of desktops on-demand, ensuring consistent performance regardless of user loads and across peak usage periods.

It also reportedly manages desktop workloads dynamically, balancing resources and optimal performance requirements, without disruption or downtime. CPU resources and memory can be added or removed without interruption.

VMware says customers report that replacing competitive desktop solutions with a combination of View and vSphere has reduced help desk calls by as much as 90%.

Last year’s View 3.0 used RDP. For View 4.0 VMware wrote a new patent-pending software-only PC-over-IP (PCoIP) display protocol specifically for virtual desktop delivery. It’s supposed to dynamically detect and adapt to the end-user network connection for an optimal desktop experience regardless of location.

The protocol reportedly optimizes for both hardware and software environments, delivering the highest quality experience for each user scenario

VMware says users can play rich media content, run multiple monitors and seamlessly access locally attached printers, scanners and mass storage.

RDP, the Microsoft protocol, which is adequate for LANs but not WANs, is still available.

View 4.0 will be out November 19 in two editions. An Enterprise Edition that includes vSphere 4 for desktops and View Manager 4, a flexible desktop management server so IT administrators can quickly provision and tightly control user access, and Premier Edition, which includes vSphere 4 for desktops, View Manager 4, VMware ThinApp 4 for virtualizing applications, and VMware View Composer, a mechanism for reducing storage requirements.

View 4 Enterprise Edition is priced at $150 per concurrent connection and the View 4 Premier Edition at $250 per concurrent connection.

The widgetry includes components VMware acquired when it bought Propero a couple, three years ago. The company is working on a client hypervisor that it expects to have ready in the first half of next year that will enable its virtual PCs to operate offline.

View-enabled desktops as a managed service is supposed to provide a single console to manage thousands of desktops; always-on access to applications and desktops from nearly any device; multiple operating systems support across devices; automatic provisioning of resources – a storage, network and compute – based on-demand; differentiated desktop SLAs, including enterprise-class availability, disaster recovery, failover and scalability supporting tens of thousands of users across the enterprise; standardized templates to enforce consistent policies and permissions; and instant updates, patches and changes.