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  • Review: Desktop virtualization made easy

    Ever since VMware coined the term, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) has conjured images of large data centers, beefy servers, centralized storage, and complex software stacks. It's a given that each VDI installation requires numerous servers, software packages, and storage systems in order to provide desktop virtualization for more than a small handful of users, so VDI just has to be both expensive and complicated to deploy. Right?

    Written by Keith Schultz • 05 Jan. 11 22:14

  • System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

    With virtualization taking over the computing world, enterprises everywhere are finding that virtual machines spread across an organization need to be managed as much as their physical computers are. Companies are also figuring out that these virtual machines have special needs and requirements that can multiply very quickly as servers are added, moved, changed or removed.

    Written by Jonathan Hassell • 13 March 10 05:55

  • VDI shootout

    Virtual desktop infrastructure is a hot topic for a number of reasons. Companies familiar with server virtualization are looking to extend to the desktop. Microsoft is delivering virtualization capabilities in Windows 7. And VDI offers a way to control desktop costs, improve security and management -- even deliver enterprise apps to phones and other mobile devices.

    Written by , Tom Henderson and Brendan Allen • 22 Dec. 09 06:35
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    NComputing X550: Low-cost, simple, effective

    The X550 is a genuine old-fashioned terminal server with a twist. One or two PCIe ports are needed in a server box to host NComputing's Ethernet boards. A small, smartphone-sized box called the XD2 has speaker, Ethernet, PS/2-style mouse and keyboard jacks and a VGA jack. Two PCIe cards yields 10 machines, and the 11th is the host computer itself. The host machine can run Windows XP, 2003 Server or 2008 Server editions.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:34

  • Pano Logic: Fast, easy, VMware-based

    Pano Logic's Pano Cube is a very small 'designer'-looking cube containing three USB jacks, VGA and audio/mic jacks. It ostensibly has no CPU or memory/storage inside, permitting it to be used strictly as a KVM+ access device. Pano Logic also makes a USB dongle called Pano Remote for Windows-based machines that logs them onto a VM as well, but we couldn't find any use for it. Pano Remote does have the ability to constrain data transfer between a host and client PC, including print data, but this was not extensively tested.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:34

  • Wyse: Effective, but proprietary

    Wyse makes a number of devices that can display Windows (or other OS) sessions. We tested the Wyse V10L/VXO terminal device, which is a lightweight and book-sized terminal.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:34

  • MokaFive LivePC: VDI with a twist

    MokaFive is an image and virtual desktop management platform that's a VDI 'crossover' product for mobile desktop use. MokaFive is VDI that's up-close-and-personal because it's downloaded or distributed as an image directly to a Windows PC or Mac and lives not on a VM server, but inside the client Windows PC or Mac workstation.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:34

  • Quest vWorkspace 6: Strong security features

    Like XenDesktop, VWorkspace works with many VM server platforms, including Virtual Iron, VMware ESX/vCenter, Microsoft Hyper-V, Parallels Virtuozzo, and also supports Microsoft Terminal Services. External (meaning remote) access uses a vWorkspace SSL proxy gateway that's installed on a dedicated gateway Windows 2000/2003 server in a physical or virtual machine.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:35

  • Ericom WebConnect: Lots of promise, still needs work

    Ericom's 'secret sauce' is a transportation protocol called Blaze, which is an adaptation of RDP for terminal services, which is Ericom's historical strength.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:35

  • Sychron OnDemand: Simple to use, some rough edges

    With OnDemand, users access VM sessions via Web page authentication. Session links from client to VM are accomplished via Java (JRE 1.6). The host session can be Windows XP, Vista or Windows 2003 Server.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:35

  • VMware View 3/4: Superior speed, management features

    We began testing with VMware View Version 3, but upgraded to Version 4 during the testing cycle. The big difference between the two is that View 4 adds a new transport protocol – PCoIP -- that speeds communications between hosted VMs and clients.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:35
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    Citrix XenDesktop 4: Flexible and fast

    Citrix's XenDesktop 4 was the most accommodating VDI platform tested, likely owing to its origins as a hybrid of Linux and Citrix. While it's not a lightweight platform, we found it to be the most flexible. Microsoft recommends XenDesktop for its own Microsoft Standard VDI and Premium VDI suite client-side components. XenDesktop runs on Microsoft Hyper-V, VMWare's ESX/vSphere platforms, as well as XenServer.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:35

  • How Microsoft Does VDI

    Microsoft does not offer a specific, purpose-built VDI tool comparable to XenDesktop or VMware View, so we did not include Microsoft in our test. In fact, based on Microsoft's longstanding relationship with Citrix, Microsoft suggests using XenDesktop for VDI — especially for Windows 7 hosting.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:34

  • How VDI affects the network

    Setting up a VDI infrastructure obviously placed a burden on the network to provide fast response times between the server and client device.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:34

  • How we tested VDI

    We confined our testing to Windows XP sessions, since Vista is unpopular and Windows 7 is only now trickling into the general population. We tested using three different platforms.

    Written by Tom Henderson • 21 Dec. 09 17:34

  • VMware Fusion 3

    Almost overnight, running Windows on a Mac became a viable option when Apple adopted Intel processors in 2006. As well as installing Windows directly onto a separate disk partition, allowing you to work natively in Windows, virtualization software packages appeared that enabled the simultaneous use of Windows from within Mac OS X - and all without rebooting.

    Written by Andrew Harrison • 18 Nov. 09 15:30

  • Citrix XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2

    The leader in application virtualization shows us why with the addition of VM-hosted applications, plus usability and manageability enhancements, in XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2

    Written by Paul Venezia • 01 Oct. 09 10:13
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    VirtualBox 2.2 For Windows

    VirtualBox for Windows was comparatively primitive, but had some interesting features. There are some show-stoppers that will prevent most from wanting to use it, however. The first problem is that there's no drag-and-drop of files/folders between a host and guest virtual machines (VM). This forces copies between host and guest through command-line interfaces. Systems professionals may not mind, but the help desk switchboard will light up if civilians try it.

    Written by Thomas Henderson and Brendan Allen • 10 Aug. 09 12:00

  • VMware vSphere 4

    VMware vSphere 4, out today, is a big release, with plenty of new features and changes, but it's not your run-of-the-mill major update. The new features, which range from VM clustering to agentless VM backup, are especially significant in that they may mark the moment when virtualisation shifted from the effort to provide a stable replica of a traditional infrastructure to significantly enhancing the capabilities of a virtual environment.

    Written by Paul Venezia • 25 May 09 12:15

  • VMware View 3.0

    VMware's VDI solution makes virtual desktops real, but not particularly easy to manage

    Written by Paul Venezia • 21 April 09 10:50
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