VMware View 5.1 Debuts with Portfolio of End-User Solutions

VMware bundled three events into one by unveiling VMware View 5.1, announcing that VMware Project Octopus Beta will empower the governing powers of IT administrators, and declaring that the newly introduced VMware Horizon Application Manager 1.5 will help IT groups open more doors to user access.

VMware is positioning View 5.1 as complementary technology to the company's efforts to establish a portfolio of "personal cloud solutions" that will simplify technology, manage more efficiently and better connect employees. When you hear this presentation in person, it sounds a little like VMware is following closely in Citrix's tracks when it talks about "freeing employees and IT organizations from more than two decades of complex, device-centric computing," and "providing new ways for employees to collaborate across applications and data from any device, where and when a user needs it."

However, View 5.1 continues adding luster to a product that was navigating rocky straits not too long ago by enhancing the all-important end-user experience and claiming to reduce the TCO associated with VDI by up to 50 percent. The fact is, View is giving Citrix XenDesktop a run for its money, and the two are neck and neck in the battle for market share.

Other new View 5.1 capabilities enable IT organizations to expedite critical and core IT processes such as provisioning, configuration management, connection brokering, policy enforcement, performance monitoring and application assignment from a central console.

Regarding the enhanced end-user experience, View 5.1 includes a new USB stack that improves device support, while integration of RADIUS two-factor authentication gives users and businesses more robust security options. Reflecting a recession in the prolonged protocol wars, this announcement only mentions PCoIP once, saying when it is combined with View, "It adapts to the end-user's network connection to provide a high-quality, customized desktop experience over the LAN and WAN. Users can connect to their VMware View desktop from a variety of mobile and fixed endpoints with updated clients for Mac, Windows and Linux desktops, thin or zero clients, and Apple iPad, Android and Amazon Kindle Fire tablets."

VMware Horizon Application Manager 1.5 has moved on-premise as a virtual appliance that acts as a centralized policy and entitlement engine that brokers user access to apps, virtual desktops and data resources. According to VMware, "Integrating the application virtualization capabilities of VMware ThinApp, the VMware Horizon Application catalog will benefit both IT and end users by consolidating diverse applications types into a single, unified catalog."

VMware Project Octopus, which is expected to bow later in the current quarter as a beta for qualified customer trials, was designed to make it easier for IT groups to enable employees to share data and collaborate with anyone from any device. Whether it is deployed on premise or via a VMware service provider, "VMware Project Octopus will provide the ability for IT administers to govern usage and set policies for data access and sharing within their organization or with external contributors.

View 5.1 together with the updated VMware End-User Computing portfolio is expected to be available by the end of June.

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 05/01/2012 at 12:48 PM