Dell-Quest deal will strengthen Dell enterprise services and force shakeout in desktop virtualization market

According to Bloomberg News Dell is in discussions to acquire Quest Software in a bid to strengthen its enterprise software services portfolio. Dell has been shopping, with five acquisitions announced so far this year, to add software, computer storage and networking gear to its lineup of PCs, which account for 52% of its sales. With PC sales flat and margins thin, Dell has been seeking to broaden its services portfolio and directly challenge HP which has suffered multiple missteps in recent months.

Onlive Desktop: VDI cannot be DaaS until Microsoft say so.

OnLive Desktop is on the verge of making a game-changing move in the VDI space delivering the hope of a service that a CFO would bite your hand off for. OnLive’s delivery capability is a wakeup call to the ISVs and SPs who are trying to penetrate this market. With the license battle is about to ensue, Microsoft has the heads up display and is the one holding the shotgun, perhaps OnLive can finally convince Redmond that its always more fun in multiplayer mode.

Who can outmanoeuvre Citrix Flexcast?

Of all the vendors in the hosted desktop space, Citrix has been delivering desktop virtualisation solutions the longest. As such, perhaps they are the most aware that an enterprise desktop strategy isn’t about delivering a single solution. A solution needs to be flexible enough to present a variety of services to a range of devices. This isn’t just about having different client support, but about delivering applications and data either to different environments: secure and insecure, managed and unmanaged, fat and thin.

Quest delivers IE 6 rescue package

With a little over 28 months left until Microsoft ends all support for Windows XP and with Internet Explorer 6, the time to consider their replacements is long overdue. While Microsoft and others have acted to deliver tools to assist with Windows 7 migration activities little effort has been made to address the challenge of IE 6. One of the others Quest has released an IE 6 rescue package. However, if anything, Microsoft’s only visible response has been to act stymie the actions of those withing to offer a solution.

Terminal Services for Mac – OS X gets virtual

The Virtualization Practice’s Presentation Virtualization Comparison Whitepaper discusses PV in relation to business’ application and desktop delivery needs. This updated release adds Aqua Connect’s Terminal Services for Mac Series 3 to those products from Citrix Xenapp, Ericom’s PowerTerm WebConnect RemoteView, Geniut’s ThinWorx, GraphOn’s Go-Global, Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Services, Propalms’ TSE, Quest’s vWorkspace, Systancia’s AppliDis Fusion and 2x ApplicationServer.