Virtual Desktop - Infoworld

OnLive's train wreck: Office on the iPad

Galen Gruman — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Demos, like appearances, can be deceiving. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, one of the media hits was OnLive Desktop, a service that provisions a Windows 7 desktop environment that includes Microsoft Office 2010 to the iPad over an Internet connection.

Virtualization no silver bullet for Macs or mobile

Galen Gruman — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

In 2006, Apple's Intel-based Macs opened the door to running Windows via desktop virtualization; suddenly users could have their personal Macs and business PCs in one box. It's a big reason, I believe, that Mac market share has continued to grow faster than overall PC market share for the last five years. The shift to Intel and the accompanying ability to run Windows gave people the security blanket they needed to make the switch.

VMTurbo upgrade supports all three major virtualization platforms

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:20:27 +0000

VMTurbo has upgraded its operations management suite to support the three major virtual environments and to improve its capacity-planning tool.

With the new 3.0 version of Operations Manager, the software can now manage Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware's vSphere individually or in multi-hypervisor deployments, the company says. This version adds XenServer to its capabilities.

A tour of Microsoft System Center 2012

J. Peter Bruzzese — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

I admit it: I never liked Microsoft's System Center server management suite. If you are one of my long-time readers, you know I mention it only sporadically, and even then without enthusiasm. It's felt like a patch job of unrelated products. But the forthcoming System Center 2012 -- now available in the form of a release candidate -- might just change my mind.

Smarter hypervisor use can lead to a 'big, big change' in security

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:19:08 +0000

To gain insight on the months ahead as they relate to IT attacks, malware, cloud security, and the impact of virtualization on security, we recently chatted with Simon Crosby, former CTO of Citrix Systems' data center and cloud business.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization pressed into action

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:50:33 +0000

Red Hat has released the third version of its RHEV (Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization) software package, which includes improvements that would make it suitable for larger deployments, and a new console for self-provisioning.

RHEV 3.0 represents a significant step forward for the readiness of KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) within the enterprise, and should be considered as a viable virtualization alternative to more widely used products from companies such as VMware and Microsoft, noted IDC cloud and virtualization analyst Gary Chen.

Atlantis diskless appliance cuts VDI costs

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:20:36 +0000

Virtual Desktop storage provider Altantis Computing has announced a new product that runs nonpersistent virtual desktop environments using only server memory.

How to handle virtual desktops, wireless, network performance issues

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:00:33 +0000

Schools are for learning, and the information technology and security professionals who support networks and applications in the nation's K-12 and university systems are discovering new tactics in what can be challenging IT environments. Here we talk to four professionals in the education realm to get a sense for their top IT issues and what they do to handle them.

Mobility, cloud, analytics to reshape IT in 2012

admin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:29:44 +0000

Despite some hopeful fits and starts, the U.S. economy didn't escape the doldrums in 2011. Unemployment remained stubbornly high, the U.S. debt-ceiling crisis and budget scuffles spurred more economic uncertainty, and Europe's ongoing financial problems threatened global markets. If there's an upside, at least it's familiar territory.

Windows admins' top 5 hits of 2011

J. Peter Bruzzese — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

To see out 2011 properly, I thought it'd be best to take a look back at the Enterprise Windows columns that continue to draw in readers. These are both fan favorites and my personal favorites.

VMware 2011: The good, the bad, and the cloudy

David Marshall — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:10:06 +0000

VMware was a busy company in 2011. Instead of resting on its laurels, the currently crowned virtualization technology leader continued to be a mover and a shaker -- although not everything went its way.

VDI shoot-out: Citrix XenDesktop 5.5

Doug Dineley — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Certainly the most flexible VDI solution I've worked with, Citrix XenDesktop is the model of compatibility coupled with excellent capabilities. XenDesktop not only works with Citrix XenServer, but also runs on top of other vendors' hypervisors. It supports all four virtual desktop delivery models (dedicated, pooled, streamed, offline) and remote connectivity from a wide range of client operating systems, including Linux, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android.

VDI shoot-out: VMware View 5

Doug Dineley — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

An excellent platform for building an enterprise VDI solution, VMware View 5 takes advantage of all the features, services, and fault tolerance built into VMware's flagship vSphere hypervisor. View allows IT to manage pools of virtual desktops, assign them to users, and define policies for VDI behavior, all from a single browser-based UI.

VDI shoot-out: Citrix XenDesktop vs. VMware View

Doug Dineley — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

More than 20 years ago, the desktop revolution swept across the land, ushering in a new paradigm of computing, taking processing away from a centralized host, and moving it to personal computers at the edge of the network. With VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure), as the saying goes, what's old is new again. Using virtualization, IT now has the ability to bring those distinct computing platforms back under one roof, while also providing for greater control and flexibility of user access.

Introducing Windows Server 8: The InfoWorld special report

uphan — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Hailed as one of Microsoft's broadest, deepest releases, Windows Server 8 will replace the current version of the OS, Windows Server 2008, in 2012 about the same time the new companion desktop OS, Windows 8, is released. Microsoft has a broad set of goals to reach with this release, such as cloud compatibility and automation of routine tasks across multiple machines. The new release also benefits from Microsoft's work building out its own Azure cloud service.

Teradici upgrades PC-over-IP firmware for zero clients

admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:29:01 +0000

Teradici has upgraded the firmware for PC-over-IP-based zero clients to provide smoother authentication, improved USB performance, and support for Internet Protocol version 6, the company said on Monday.

VMware yanks Mac OS X client virtualization 'feature'

David Marshall — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:31:30 +0000

When Apple released Mac OS X 10.7, known as Lion, it became the first client version of Mac OS X that Apple gave express permission to run as a guest operating system within a virtual machine. Sure, it still needed to operate on top of Apple hardware, but users could finally virtualize a client OS without searching for answers in dark and seedy places online.

Big data strains small-business bandwidth

Matt Prigge — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Sooner or later, small businesses encounter many of the same challenges big businesses face -- and it's happening now, big time, with rampant data growth. You'd think the burden of the data explosion would fall primarily on storage infrastructure. In fact, for many small businesses, WAN bandwidth is proving to be the biggest bottleneck.

InfoWorld's top 10 emerging enterprise technologies

Eric Knorr — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Everyone is a trend watcher. But at a certain point, to determine which trends will actually weave their way into the fabric of business computing, you need to first take a hard look at the technologies that gave life to the latest buzz phrases.

VDI: Not just for big business

Matt Prigge — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Time is the scarcest commodity for any IT pro. There's never enough to get everything done, whether you spend it fighting fires, rolling out new applications, or supporting the user base. And this scarcity affects IT shops of any size -- from the armies supporting Fortune 100 companies to the one beleagured employee supporting a small business.