This post was written by Denise Ross
Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2007 offers developers and administrators an inexpensive option for satisfying their testing, support and application compatibility needs through the magic of virtualization. The most notable addition to the product, which is a follow-on to Microsofts Virtual PC 2004, is support for Windows Vista as a host or guest operating system. Probably our favorite feature of VPC 2007 is its support for creating Differencing Virtual Hard Discs. During installation mouse and display may not work well. PC 2007 lags VMware Workstation in overall functionality.
VMware Workstation 6.5 is an outstanding tool for creating and running a wide variety of virtual machines on a stand-alone PC or laptop. It is an excellent tool for developers, multiplatform power users and anyone who needs to emulate a network of computers on a single machine. Workstation proves to be a top-notch hypervisor for running guest operating systems. It is a Type 2 hypervisor, which means it is software that installs on top of the operating system installed on the physical host system. The Easy Install feature is surprisingly, well, easy to use.
VKernel’s Capacity Analyzer 2.0 can use VMware VirtualCenter statistics to offer clarity in virtualization deployments. However, the virtualization tool is not a cross-platform product; it doesn’t address Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization technology. But in VMware environments, the virtualization tool will help IT administrators get the most out of their ESX installations. The biggest difference between VKernel’s Capacity Analyzer and VMware’s Capacity Planner is that VKernel uses added technology to make predictions about when and where capacity problems will occur. Capacity Analyzer is best suited for small to midsize enterprises that have moderately sized data centers.
HP Middle East has introduced a new virtualization software suite that helps companies transition from traditional distributed desktop computing to a virtualized client environment. The HP Virtual Client Essentials portfolio involves multimedia, brokering and streaming solutions, designed with a strong user focus. Its solutions include the HP Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Enhancements and HP Remote Graphics Software, two protocol options that offer a rich multimedia experience when deploying virtual computing solutions. It also features HP Session Allocation Manager (SAM), a session broker for remote clients that provides connectivity and advanced management capabilities.
IBM is taking on VMware’s virtual desktop infrastructure with its own Linux and Lotus-based virtual desktop. VMware’s VDI, recently re-launched as View, ships a virtual Windows or Linux desktop to desktops, notebooks and thin client devices, and is built from a golden master file and linked clones, stored on a VMware ESX server’s disks. IBM is working with Virtual Bridges and its VERDE (Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment) product to ship a virtual Canonical Ubuntu Linux desktop, with Lotus email, unified communication, and social networking software included, to a variety of end-point devices.
HCL Technologies has signed a Global System Integration contract with VMware. This relationship combines VMware virtualization products and services with HCL’s proven experience and globally benchmarked capabilities in enterprise IT infrastructure operations and transformation, thereby providing best-of-breed virtualization lifecycle services to global enterprises. The relationship with VMware will further strengthen HCL’s expertise in information lifecycle management as well as desktop and datacenter virtualization and transformation services to help enterprises reduce risk, cut costs and improve IT efficiency.
SAP AG will be integrating Right Hemisphere’s 2D and 3D visualization technology into its SAP PLM Solution. Right Hemisphere’s visualization technology will serve as the standard for viewing, collaborating and publishing graphical product data for SAP’s next generation of enterprise applications. The next release of SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM), the shipping for which is scheduled to commence later this year, will be the first SAP application to take advantage of Right Hemisphere’s 3D technology. This technology integration will also allow SAP users to seamlessly incorporate additional Right Hemisphere client and enterprise software products into their IT infrastructure for state-of-the-art 2D and 3D product graphics authoring, management and publishing capabilities.
Microsoft has announced the first public beta release of its BizTalk Server 2009 enterprise connectivity software, which can take advantage of virtualization and enhanced failover clustering featured in Windows Server 2008. Virtualization is enabled by Windows Server 2008′s Hyper-V virtualization. Clustering capabilities let BizTalk be deployed in multi-site clustering environments without additional software or hardware. The product offers scalability and reliability through its support of Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 database. BizTalk Server also can connect with Oracle’s E-Business Suite. The general release of BizTalk Server 2009 is due in the first half of 2009.
Virtual Bridges, a leading provider of desktop and enterprise virtualization solutions for business, has released a major upgrade to its award-winning Win4Lin Desktop product and a specially priced edition for Ubuntu users. With Win4Lin Desktop, home and personal users enjoy unparalleled ease-of-use together with the broadest Windows application support available from desktop virtualization products. SMB users are able to lower costs by standardizing on Linux infrastructure while retaining their tried and true applications like Quickbooks and Filemaker. Enterprises and large organizations benefit not only from being able to run custom and vertical applications unmodified on Linux, but also from incredible easy management and corruption recovery.
VMware has released VMware View 3, new software aimed at providing desktop virtualization, application virtualization and management of virtual desktops in one product. VMware View is a reworking of the company’s VMware Desktop Infrastructure product that adds other components to solve the problem of managing virtualized desktop environments, said Raj Mallempati, a group product manager of desktop products for VMware. VMware View is part of an initiative that VMware is calling vClient, which it unveiled at its VMworld conference in September.