VMware View Client and Citirix Receiver for iPad – truly free of charge?

VMware View users along with Citirix XenDesktop and Quest vWorkspace have an iPad client for their respective solutions. Personal device use may seem appealing in reducing the demands on IT support – but to fully comply with the license agreements can incur additional license charges, and those charges are difficult to manage. Despite the advertising blurb attached to the free clients, the headaches for finance and IT are not over yet.

Mobile Virtual Desktops, Motorola Announce a Nirvana Phone

The Nirvana Phone was intended to enable a user to use their small form factor device when on the move or in the office to access business applications and data by accessing a virtual desktop. Motorola’s ATRIX 4G is being hailed as a device that can enable any road warrior or knowledge worker more mobile and productive with an in-place virtualised desktop environment

Desktop virtualization, a year in review

The desktop virtualization year opened with a bang at CES with the explosion of vendor announcements introducing the next generation of mobile tablets. The obvious winner this year being Apple and the iPad but with many more vendors showing off Windows-based tablets including HP, Archos and Pegatron, as well as Android tablets from manufacturers such as Archos (again), Compal, Dell, HP (again), and Motorola. The key challenge of course being the delivery of existing enterprise applications onto these platforms, something that’s desktop virtualization and presentation virtualization is ideally suited for. The inescapable consequence of this was a steady stream of announcements from Citrix, VMware, and Wyse as they leapfrogged each other’s announcements on availability, functionality, and usability of their respective mobile tablet client offerings. The level of competitiveness here producing major benefits for potential adopters as each strove to outdo the other in terms of user experience innovation and performance.

Wyse explores the boundaries of cloud computing with new Cloud PCs

Wyse Technology has announced a new computing platform designed to capitalize on the growing market for cloud hosted virtual desktop environments that has the potential to un-jam one of the most emotive roadblocks towards the widespread adoption of desktop virtualization. Announced at Microsoft’s Tech Ed conference in Berlin, the Wyse Cloud PC presents an intriguing twist in the junction between desktop virtualization and thin client technologies that gets right to the heart of many IT professionals opposition to desktop virtualization.

Delivering your "desktop as a service" to laptop users

Indeed a challenge in migrating to a Hosted Virtual Desktop (HVD) solution is what to do with existing devices. Citrix’s High Definition User EXperience (HDX) technologies for example, typically relies on the end device supporting a Microsoft Windows operating system to deliver the best user experience. If that is the case, how will you manage the end device that delivers the user’s HVD? Vendors such as DevonIT, Igel, and 10ZiG would naturally suggest you replace your traditional PC with a Thin Client: vendors such as PanoLogic, Teradici and Wyse would highlight the advantages of Zero Client devices – yet moving away from existing devices is a costly exercise in terms of providing replacement devices. And indeed – still does not address off-line working.