Citrix / Unidesk — Application Layer: Check; Personalization Layer: ?

In January, Citrix announced the acquisition of Unidesk. There has been tremendous excitement about this addition to the Citrix portfolio. As you may recall, Citrix attempted application layering technology on its own in early 2016. As part of XenApp/XenDesktop 7.8, Citrix released AppDisk, but it never really caught on because there were several third-party products …

Does VDI need User Virtualization, or does User Virtualization need VDI?

VMware view to release RTO profile solution. Is this lagging behind Citrix who have bought Ringcube? View now has profile management – but that isn’t user virtualisation. Does VDI need User Virtualization, or does User Virtualization need VDI? User Virtualization has the capacity to extend across desktop delivery boundaries because the user workspace, their applications and data are no longer bound to the desktop OS. Solutions available from vendors such as AppSense, UniDesk and RES. To deliver virtual desktops for the enterprise, it is not simply a case of managing profile load time better: many users need greater customisation than a shared desktop can deliver. In an enterprise environment VDI is not the only method of delivering desktops. A complete user virtualization solution needs to be able to accommodate, not only centralised hosted desktops, but off-line use as well and standard desktops.

Podio Released. Does the social work platform herald the beginning-of-the-end of desktops?

Podio offers a service that can be readily set-up, customised and deployed: with little IT knowledge – or IT service interaction. You create a workspace, you add applications to that workspace, you invite members of your team (regardless of the fact that your team may extend beyond your organisation) and you start working. if there were more Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings such as Podio available, would they negate the need for Desktop as a Service (DaaS)? Podio is likely a game changing environment for collaboration environments, but the rise of such services is likely to have a far wider impact in providing desktop services.

Desktop Virtualization: How do Wanova offer a Mirage?

Wanova have developed a Distributed Desktop Virtualization Mirage to solve issues of desktop management with distributed environments, without the need for hypervisors. Their distributed desktop virtualization model should be one you consider in delivering desktop services to your corporate devices.