Motorola Atrix hints at a virtualized

Motorola announced the Atrix smartphone at the Consumer Electronics Show, and during many have been concentrating on its 4G connectivity and clever desktop dock that lets it run a cut-down Linux desktop on a full-sized monitor, near everybody has missed something very important.

The astonishing specifications

Among the astonishing specifications, the dual-core Motorola Atrix has a form of virtualization built in, courtesy of Citrix Receiver. This small program allows users to log onto virtualized Windows 7 desktops provided via Citrix XenApp. As such, this is the first implementation of Citrix's NirvanaPhone vision.

The Atrix as a matter of fact can be a replacement for a desktop; once docked, users can fire up Citrix Receiver and access a Windows desktop provided for them by their employer. All the number crunching is done remotely, and all the phone has to do is display the desktop. That is, the computing power of the phone isn't an issue.

Using the Atrix thus points to a possible future scenario where cell phones act as a cloud computing bridge device. Here's how we might work in just a few years' time:

Flight to check his e-mail via the built-in OS

John Smith uses his phone during on a flight to check his e-mail via the built-in OS. When the plane lands, he stops off in the lounge and sits in front of what appears to be little more than a keyboard, monitor, and mouse. He pulls out his phone and starts an app that connects to the hardware wirelessly and, afterwards tapping in his password, the monitor comes alive with a desktop version of his phone's operating system.

He could browse the Web if he wanted, now instead he fires up his virtualization client and, within seconds, is presented with a Windows desktop provided by his employers, and hosted within the cloud. He's able to start Microsoft Word, check his e-mails in Outlook, and do just about any task. There's no data security risk because no data is being stored on his phone; he's merely using it to view a virtualized desktop across the Internet.

The promise of cloud is heady

While the promise of cloud is heady, there is confusion about the different types of cloud, what they to tell the truth offer, and which will meet stringent business requirements. This paper focuses on separating the hype of cloud from the "how to".

In virtualized server environments, the selection of the storage environment and choice of the storage system, itself, are critical.