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VMware, Google Take On the VDI World
VMware beefs up its End User Computing plans via a partnership with Google that makes inexpensive Chromebooks hard to pass up as hardware upgrade options for enterprises.
VMware and Google will be tag-teaming their technology offerings to drive down the cost of VDI and at the same time making it hard for enterprises to pass up Chromebooks as serious business machines. The companies made the announcement yesterday at VMware's Partner Exchange conference in San Francisco.
The result of the partnership will be Google Chromebooks that have native support for VMware's Horizon View, which effectively gives any enterprises deploying Windows desktops and apps access on Chromebooks.
"Google Chromebooks can save businesses about $5,000 per computer when compared to traditional PCs," said Amit Singh, President of Google Enterprise, in a VMware press release. The details behind those savings weren't given in the release or at the conference, but there are cost savings to be had in hardware (with Chromebooks available for less than $200 apiece) and reduction in soft costs such as software and application licensing, maintenance and management in a virtualized environment.
The joint solution is available now as an on-premises service with the current Horizon View 5.3, but the plan is to eventually develop a solution that's fully cloud-enabled through VMware's Horizon DaaS either via VDI or Remote Desktop Services. Those services will be available through VMware or vCloud Service Providers before summer.
On a side note, VMware introduced a new mobile monitoring app for keeping tabs on the goings-on with one's vSphere infrastructure.
The vSphere Mobile Watchlist app allows for the creation of watch lists and alerts based on the inventory, health, and state of VMs. The app will suggest and offer access to VMware Knowledge Base articles based on the alerts that pop up and allow a limited number of operational control to remedy situations.
For those issues that can't be fixed through the phone, it provides for the delegation of issues to other team members with better access.
The app is available for iPhones and Android phones through their respective stores.
About the Author
Michael Domingo has held several positions at 1105 Media, and is currently the editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.