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Jan 30 2008   3:54PM GMT

VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2 released



Posted by: Akutz
Andrew Kutz, VI3, Virtualization

Today VMware announced the general availability of a new addition to their Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) — VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2 (VDM2). Some of the new features of VMD2 include:

- SSL secured connections
- Second-factor authentication with RSA SecureID
- Integration with ActiveDirectory for authentication and authorization
- Create persistent and non-persistent desktop pools for groups of users
- Increased clustering support for VDM2

The release of VDM2 continues VMware’s dominance of the virtual desktop market. With broad support from independent hardware vendors (IHVs), VDI is finally beginning to evolve into a product not only worth using, but one that businesses deploying numerous desktops should not be without.

For more information check out the VMware VDM2 product site.

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JStafford  |   Jan 30, 2008  7:02 PM (GMT)

Andrew, how do you define the virtual desktop market? Would VMware be dominant if you included Citrix’s products?

Looking at VMware’s press release and media coverage of this announcement, it looks like VDI is catching on in vertical markets first, especially in education where cost is an heavy issue and healthcare. The vertical markets are often early adopters of new technologies. Do you see mainstream businesses following suit at this point?

By the way, on VMware’s community blog, a user describes how compliance issues are increasing VDI usage in healthcare settings (http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/virtualdesktop/2008/01/29/vmware-vdi-vmware-and-vmsight-tackeling-hippa-and-pci-compliance-challenges). I noticed that one of VMware’s customer references for this announcement work in vertical settings: Steve Beaver, systems administrator at Florida Hospital (http://www.sys-con.com/read/493138.htm).


 

Akutz  |   Jan 30, 2008  7:11 PM (GMT)

Great points! The virtual desktop market is a broad term, isn’t it? And it does seem that Citrix offers a comparable product, correct? Well, it depends who is defining the boundaries of the playing field. Technically, a virtual desktop is a desktop OS that is hosted inside a virtual machine, which is what VDI does. Citrix offers remote applications solutions — applications hosted remotely, streamed to a local desktop. Or they offer something comparative to Microsoft Windows Terminal Services (WTS). But these technologies are really remote desktop technologies.

Citrix does offer XenDesktop, and there is SolidICE by Qumranet, but neither of these products have the market share that VDI does.

It brings up a valid questions — should we even be talking in terms of virtual desktop or remote desktop? Should we start talking in terms of DCD^2 – Datacenter Desktop Delivery (you heard it here first)? Do users even care how we provide them a desktop as long as we provide it to them? I think the answer is no, no they do not.

FYI – One of the reasons we are seeing early adoption of VDI in vertical settings is because of the focus VDI and other similar technologies are placing on Windows. Vertical IT shops that use Windows can really benefit from VDI since VDI (and again, other similar solutions), are being packaged as largely Windows solutions.