VMware is aiming to add desktops to the other enterprise infrastructure that runs atop its vSphere datacentre platform with the release of View 4, a move that puts it into direct competition with Citrix and its XenDesktop offering.
Available from 19 November, VMware View 4 delivers an improved experience for virtual desktop users as well as easier management and deployment for administrators, the firm said.
View 4 makes use of the PC-over-IP (PCoIP) protocol developed by Teradici to deliver a remote desktop to various devices, such as thin clients, PCs, Macs, or even smartphones, and is said to offer an experience comparable to running applications locally on a standard Windows PC.
But the headline claim for View 4 is that it can deliver customers a 50 per cent saving in total cost of ownership, compared with running a fleet of Windows client PCs.
The savings come from simplified management, higher availability, faster provisioning of new users, but also savings on storage costs and no need for a PC hardware refresh, VMware said.
Dave Wright, senior director of Technical Services for VMware, said that the current climate has created a “perfect storm” to drive uptake of desktop virtualisation, as the technology is now in place and customers are looking for solutions to specific problems it can address.
“The desktop is a pain for IT because everyone wants their own desktop environment. We need to give users freedom, but at the same time control for the IT department,” he said.
“We should be able to move the operating system, apps, and data to one central location, and then it shouldn’t matter what device I use – I just want it to look like I’m using a standard PC.”
Wright said VMware is now in a position to deliver what it calls Business Infrastructure Virtualisation, where client systems can also be consolidated alongside everything else into virtual machines running atop vSphere.
“All this stuff can run on vSphere. If someone has a virtual desktop, it’s just another virtual machine, but it has the advantage that it is also backed up by vSphere like your servers are. It brings datacentre robustness to the desktop level that you don’t get with standalone PCs,” he explained.
PCoIP is a key part of VMware’s strategy, as it can deliver a much better remote desktop experience than commonly used protocols such as RDP and ICA, according to Rory Clements, a specialist systems engineer for the firm.”It can adapt dynamically to the bandwidth available, and is designed to cover all user roles – from remote workers right through to illustrators and designers running demanding graphic apps,” he said.
As a demonstration, Clements showed how video could be played and a 3D model manipulated in real-time with no visual lag over a PCoIP session.
This move puts VMware in direct competition with Citrix, which has long been the leader in remote access technology for desktops and applications. Citrix has its own virtual desktop stack based on Xen servers.
One early adopter already using VMware’s View 4 is Standard Bank’s UK operation, based in the City of London.
Joel King, infrastructure architect for the firm, said it had previously been using Citrix technology, but that users found performance was not up to the mark for some of the graphics-intensive applications they were using.
Since switching to View 4, Standard Bank has reduced the cost of managing user desktops by about £150,000 per year, according to King.
The drawback to operating virtual machines this way is that it calls for a datacentre largely built on a VMware software stack.
However, Wright defended the 50 per cent saving claim for View 4, and said that a move to virtual desktops would not require an up-front investment in new hardware.
“Most servers are only about 10 to 12 per cent utilised, so customers can re-appropriate existing resources and use them better as hosts for virtual machines,” he said.
VMware View 4 is available in two versions; Enterprise Edition includes vSphere 4 for desktops, vCenter 4 and View Manager 4 and is priced at $150 (£90) per concurrent seat.
The Premier Edition of View 4 includes everything in Enterprise Edition, plus VMware’s ThinApp application virtualisation technology and View Composer for building virtual desktop images, priced at $250 (£150) per concurrent connection.
VMWare
