VMworld brings flurry of third-party product launches

In a keynote at VMworld Tuesday, Stephen Herrod, VMware's chief innovation officer, detailed how all these products could work at the same time in an integrated infrastructure, one that would free applications and data from any one platform or end-user device. "It should be all about people. There is not one place I go, or one machine I go to. So it in effect should be about the applications and data. I want to get access to get specific apps that I want and I want to get data from wherever I am," he said.

For users who want to jump into virtualization in a big way, Hewlett-Packard has assembled a package of hardware and software, called HP VirtualSystem, built to run a VMware-based operation. It includes HP FlexFabric network equipment, HP 3Par and LeftHand storage gear, and HP BladeSystem servers. Built around VMware's vCenter Server software, the package as well includes HP Insight Control to help administrators troubleshoot and manage vCenter.

Other announcements: Dell committed to launching a public cloud service based on VMware infrastructure. Samsung pledged its support for the VMware hypervisor in its future phones, which should help foster enterprise use of VDI on the phones.

While server-side virtualization is where VMware makes much of its revenue, a surprising number of products were built around the company's newly released View 5 VDI desktop virtualization software as so then.

Thin-client equipment provider Wyse announced that its products would be supporting View 5. This means that Wyse customers will be able to take advantage of the improved bandwidth usage and personalization that View 5 offers. Wyse products supporting View 5 include the P20 zero client, Microsoft Windows Embedded thin customers, SUSE Linux-based thin customers, ThinOS machines and Wyse PocketCloud for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android smartphones and tablet devices.

VoIP software provider Mitel integrated its own Unified Communicator Advanced computer phone software with View 5, allowing users to deploy network telephony from within View. Previous versions of View were too sluggish for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls, Mitel noted.

Software company Liquidware Labs previewed a new application for helping organizations plan a move to a VDI infrastructure. Stratusphere Designer can assess usage patterns, identify applications that can work in a VDI environment, compile inventory, and monitor storage use and network quality. Such data will give organizations an accurate feel for how many VDI resources to purchase.

EMC, parent company of VMware, updated its own VNX -- low-cost storage arrays that combine SAN and NAS interfaces -- for View usage. EMC claims that it was able just in case 500 VMware View 5.0 desktops from a VNX array in five minutes, 40 percent more quickly than was possible in View 4.5.

The benefits of VDI

While partners were eager to tout the benefits of VDI and server-side virtualization, VMware competitors as well grabbed some show floor to present alternatives to VMware's vision of cloud computing.

Virtualizing business-critical applications is an essential step in your journey to the cloud. Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange and SharePoint, and Oracle applications, are often the backbone of business IT. The benefits of virtualizing these applications extend far beyond mere consolidation. Understanding how VMware improves quality of service and agility during reducing costs will help you make the case for taking virtualization to the then level in your company.

This IDC white paper explains how much of the Enterprise IT community is at a crossroads in extending their journey to the private cloud: Companies must virtualize their business critical applications in order to reap the benefits of cloud computing. The paper as well includes two case studies and a sidebar highlighting the experiences of three enterprises with virtualizing their business-critical applications, which include Oracle and Microsoft SQL databases, SAP and enterprise Java, and a Microsoft Exchange email system.