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VMware is rebranding its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) technology as VMware View, and having virtual desktops built from a generic golden master and user-specific files that cut VDI storage space by up to 80 per cent.
According to Jocelyn Goldfein, VMware's global manager for its desktop business, the vClient initiative, the company is saying: "The desktop is the next big frontier for VMware virtualisation." Desktop virtualisation can be as transformative as server virtualisation. "Users are no longer tethered to a desk and want their desktop to follow them" as they move between PC, thin client, notebook, Mac with a virtualised Windows or, potentially, a smartphone.
Currently VDI is used to build and store desktop virtual machines (VMs) or VDI images, with one per user desktop. This can mean having a thousand or more VDI images stored on the server's disks. With View, VMware is changing to a model where the common elements of the hundreds and thousands of VDI images are stored in a single central file, the golden master, which is a snapshot file. Then the unique elements of each VDI are stored in separate files called linked clones and served by the View infrastructure to end-point devices, which are not necessarily PCs.
Composing desktop images
Goldfein says desktop virtualisation preserves the richness of a user's desktop as they move between locations and devices and substantially cuts data centre costs. View Composer builds (composes) VDI images from the master and clones. View Manager provides central VDI policy management.
Tommy Armstrong, VMware's senior desktop product marketing manager, says that changes can be made to the single golden master which, effectively, alter all the VDIs instantly. He added: "We would like to move to idea of building a VDI like a web page," meaning constructing/composing it in real time from elements stored on VMware Infrastructure servers.
VMware's virtual data centre initiative is intended to build these private clouds. Its vCloud initiative is to build VMware technology outside the data centre. Through View, users get their desktop from a private cloud with their personal desktop information stored in the clones.
Asked if there was a Decho - EMC's combination of Mozy cloud backup and Pi personal information management - connection with View, Goldfein's eyes gleamed as she said: "Could be."
The idea of a user jetting around the globe and then wanting to fire up their own desktop environment on a PC or thin client in an office they are visiting has an obvious resonance with EMC's Atmos cloud storage concept with its distribution of files around the globe to provide faster, more localised access.
Next page: Enhanced desktop experience
COMMENTS
Still waiting for technical response, not holding my breath.
Well, it's no surprise you post as AC, I've realised now that what you actually must be objecting to is my dissing the Sunray product in my original post - you Sunshiners just can't sit still if someone says anything not to your liking about anything Sun. No wonder you can't supply a technical response about VMware View, you work with Slowaris! You have no experience of working outside of your narrow productset. What a surprise - not! If anyone is acting like a fourteen-year-old (or younger, I woudln't want to insult 14-year-olds) it is you Sunshiners and your kneejerk insultive reflex to anyone that you disagree with. No doubt you'll deny the complete lack of penetration of Sunray into anywhere other than Sun's own buildings? Want to compare market figures against even Mac desktops?
I suggest you try a product outside your tiny remit, you'll be surprised. It may even enhance your employability as Sun slides off the map. I would recommend VMware ESX as a starter as you'll find there is much more call for it in the real world than there is for Slowaris or Sunray skills. Of course, you'll have to learn a modern, popular, x64 OS to be homed on the ESX, so best forget Slowaris and learn some Linux or Windoze. Now that should have you choking up with froth!
/Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle!
Nice try, Troll Bryant
but I ain't taking the bait :)
Matter of fact, I'm wondering if you actually are in IT at all...most of your rhetoric seems to have been pulled off advertising brochures, and your constant use of words like "Sunshiners" leads me to believe that you are, in fact, 14 years old :)
RE: Anonymous Coward
"....Seriously, your ignorance is astonishing." Well, your response is just brimming with eloquent technical insight - not! I actually use and appreciate VMWare products like ESX and see the value of VDI when applied to a desktop fleet on a corporate LAN, but for VMware's Jocelyn Goldfein to state that it will allow a user to seamlessly move from desktop to mobile netbook is just too much. Citirx kind of does it, but then if you've used Citrix (and I have, we still do, and I like the product) you will know it involves compromises even with high-speed broadband. And Citrix has a lot of advantages in its ICA protocol design that VMware is not even close to matching, which means user frustration levels will be off the chart. Much as I support the idea of VDI/View for the LAN desktop, I would seriously question the suggestion of trying to use it remotely.
Now, unless you can actually formulate a reply with a technical argument, kindly go suck a thin client.
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