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VMware's desktop push heads for casualty ward, in a good way

End-user computing push continues with Horizon release and new vertical templates

VMware's march towards your palm, your lap and your desk has advanced again.

Virtzilla recently released Horizon 6 , its much-ballyhooed end-user computing suite. Announced in April, the code is now generally available.

VMware thinks it has something entirely new in Horizon 6. While the company knows it will be compared to Citrix, it dismisses the company as merely defending a legacy position with a vision founded in the need to pipe client/server apps into places they don't comfortably fit. VMware feels that Horizon's combination of a policy layer to control how and to whom apps are exposed, a service catalog and single-sign-on to both of the above represents a more modern approach.

The company also released a slew of reference platforms for VDI in verticals. Financial services, manufacturing and healthcare are the lucky recipients of pre-rolled templates that help them get on the desktop virtualisation bandwagon. US government agencies and schools districts also get a set of configurations they can use.

Such reference platforms aren't often, in Vulture South's experience, created without a customer willing to be the early adopter/testbed. Those that agree to such arrangements allow a vendor's experiences codified and resold, often in return for more generous terms. That VMware has been able to develop five industry-specific end-user computing references therefore bespeaks both early success and yet more investment to ensure it does well in a field it has identified as a major growth market.

There's every chance it will do so: Tisa Murdock, director of desktop solutions for EUC at VMware explained that the healthcare rig has added single sign on and integration with electronic ID tags so that hospital staff can sign on by tapping badges to a reader, at which point they will be offered access to records and apps appropriate to the situation.

With the company's next scheduled earnings call just over three weeks away, Virtzilla-watchers don't have long to wait to see if those efforts are making a difference to the bottom line. ®

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