VMware Desktop Manager 2.0 has been released, and the reaction is good. (There is also an updated section on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure that may be useful to you. For questions and comments, see the new VDM Community at VMware Communities.)
From VMware’s Warren Ponder at the Virtual Desktop Blog. Link: VMware VDI – Virtual Desktop Manager 2 Released
VDM 2 was not a rebranding exercise of slapping a VMware VDM 2 logo on
some legacy product. It was a completely new product built from the
Propero technology acquired in 2005 with the vision of virtual desktop
management in mind. Rather than taking the high road and fastest time
to market a conscious decision was made to build a solid foundation
from which the future of virtual desktop management could safely rest.
Doug Brown over at dabcc.com was a beta tester and gives his verdict — thumbs up — along with a detailed description of what’s inside the virtual box. Link: VMware Releases Desktop Virtualization (VDI) Solution – VDM 2.0 – Overview and Much More!
First and foremost this release is not vaporware, it is not full
of a bunch of features that do not work as described, it is real and
from my testing all the features work and work very well, of course
that does not mean it is everything to everybody …[Doug gives a rundown of the components and concepts, not just a cut-and-paste job.]
In the coming days I will release a more detailed analysis about
my experiences throughout the beta and the RTM but for now please feel
free to download it and give it a try yourself. BUT, I will say that I’ve been very impressed with VDM. The
only problem is the VDM client does NOT support 64-bit workstations but
of course there are ways to workaround that issue, which I will
document in the coming days too. 😉
Brian Madden also likes the fact that it’s actually shipping, but also points out that the major weakness of VDI is that it’s not Presentation Server, er, XenApp (and I’d argue that isn’t a bad thing). Link: VMware releases VDM2, the new version of their VDI product. What will the impact be?
And of course there’s strength in the fact that VDM2 is an actual released product. (Download a 60-day eval) Citrix’s XenDesktop, which is shaping up to be another dominating force in the VDI space is still months away best case.
Eric Sloof was also in on the VDM beta. Link: The launch of the Virtual Desktop Manager 2
When Capgemini Outsourcing had obtained an outsourcing contract from office Furniture group Ahrend
last September, it has taken over management of the office ICT
environment and the service desk. As the senior system administrator at
Ahrend I created a VDI pool with desktops. During the transition of all
the hardware from the Ahrend Datacenter in Nieuwegein to the Capgemini
datacenter in Amsterdam, the Ahrend ICT colleagues could easily move
to the Capgemini office without losing their old desktop. There are two
things I really like about VDM2; the first one is the automatic
provisioning and the second one is USB support. VDM2 really made the
transition to Capgemini run a lot smoother.
