The end user computing landscape is evolving from an environment based primarily on personal computers running Windows applications to an environment where users:
Move between endpoint devices during the work day (desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and cell phones)
Expect to be able to stay connected to their professional and personal networks via mobile electronic devices
Want their data to be available from any of their devices
Want their applications to be available from any device. These applications include not only legacy Windows applications, but also web applications, SaaS applications, and server-based applications.
In this mobile user- and device-centric environment, IT must protect data security and control user access to data at the same time as it manages the range of applications and devices for all users. The single operating system and single device per user is a model of the past. VMware offers an end user computing solution that meets the challenges of providing for a mobile workforce, without compromising IT control or the operational efficiencies of existing management processes. VMware products incorporate the needs of both IT and end users.
The time saved in the management of user desktops is significant with a VMware View virtual desktop implementation. Time saved in desktop management means that your IT staff can devote themselves to other projects on your IT horizon. A VMware View virtual desktop solution resolves many of the economic and user satisfaction issues of a desktop environment. A View deployment saves an average of 7 hours of labor per user desktop per year, out of 12.2 hours labor per user on a physical desktop per year. This is a 57% decrease in labor costs with a VMware View implementation. Multiply the 7 hours by your number of users, and the time available for other projects is a convincing argument for virtual desktops.
The folks at Xsigo have done some performance benchmarking -- on their own server fabric but still, in this emerging space, numbers are still hard to come by and these illustrate some of what’s possible as the industry moves in this direction.
This is a really short write-up they did with info on the test bed, the tests performed and some graphs and screenshots, but the summary results show that compared to 1G and 10G Ethernet, the Xsigo ServerFabric delivered:
2.4X the Ethernet traffic of a 10G Ethernet connection (throughput to a single virtual machine)
20Gbps throughput measured to a single NIC on a single virtual machine
15X faster vMotion than1G Ethernet
67% faster vMotion than 10G Ethernet
In performance benchmark testing, the Xsigo Server Fabric demonstrated significantly higher network device throughput as compared to 1G Ethernet and 10G Ethernet server connections.
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is Microsoft’s first cloud-ready information platform. It gives organizations effective tools to protect, unlock, and scale the power of their data, and it works across a variety of devices and data sources, from desktops, phones, and tablets, to datacenters and both private and public clouds. Our (Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner) purpose in Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is to point out both the new and the improved capabilities as they apply to achieving mission-critical confdence, breakthrough insight, and using a cloud on your terms.
As you read this book, we (Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner) think you will fnd that there are a lot of exciting enhancements and new capabilities engineered into SQL Server 2012 that allow you to greatly enhance performance and availability at a low total cost of ownership, unlock new insights with pervasive data discovery across the organization and create business solutions fast—on your terms.
Forced failover to allow you to recover virtual machines in cases where storage arrays fail at the protected site
Added support for IP Customization of Ubuntu
VMware VSA Support (Virtual machines that reside on the vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) can be protected by SRM 5.0.1 using vSphere Replication (VR). VSA does not require a Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) to work with SRM 5.0.1)
Veeam is pleased to offer a free version of Veeam ONE, its single solution for powerful, easy-to-use and affordable virtualization management. Now everyone can experience the benefits of realtime monitoring, change tracking, documentation and management reporting used by more than 50,000 VMware professionals.
Veeam ONE Free Edition includes all the core functionality of the full version of Veeam ONE, including full data collection, multi-user support, and a Microsoft SQL Server backend. There are no limits on the number of hosts, virtual machines (VMs), users or the size of your data archive. By simply installing a purchased license key, Veeam ONE Free Edition can easily be upgraded to the full version of Veeam ONE to gain these and other additional capabilities:
Alarm modeling and custom alarms
Full access to the knowledge base
Management of guest, host and vCenter processes
Historical change management beyond the most recent 24 hours
Microsoft Visio reports for multipathing, network, vMotion and datastore utilization
Automated report generation and distribution
This PDF details the features and differences between Veeam ONE Free Edition and the full version of Veeam ONE.
This report shows that in a true apples-to-apples comparison where lossy and lossless policies are applied equally to both platforms to yield a comparable user experience, VMware View 5 demonstrates equal or better efficiency in bandwidth consumption and in client and server side CPU utilization when compared to Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 on common office applications. This advantage in efficiency can translate into great density, better user experience and lower cost for an organization using VDI technologies.
VMware View Client for iPad is the first iPad client with support for the PCoIP display protocol for tight integration with VMware View and increased flexibility for the end-user. Enable end-users to simply and securely connect to their View-Based Windows desktop from an iPad with the best possible user experience on the Local Area Network (LAN) or across a Wide Area Network (WAN). The improvements in this new 1.4 version are:
In this mobile user- and device-centric environment, IT must protect data security and control user access to data at the same time as it manages the range of applications and devices for all users. The single operating system and single device per user is a model of the past. VMware offers an end user computing solution that meets the challenges of providing for a mobile workforce, without compromising IT control or the operational efficiencies of existing management processes. VMware products incorporate the needs of both IT and end users.
The first step in implementing Secure Print Release is to acquire the Secure Print Server solution from a printing partner. The Secure Print Control software will be installed on the same machine as your existing Print Server. The Secure Print Control software can use Active Directory for authentication or will integrate with an existing single sign-on solution. The Secure Print Control vendor solutions have modular SSO architecture and can work with you to integrate any existing SSO solution in your current infrastructure. Companies that do not want to use Active Directory or that have an existing SSO solution can alternatively use local lists or user input to a SQL database. The single sign-on and user login data are aggregated for compliance auditing purposes.
This brief provides an overview of the desktop security vulnerabilities which exist in both virtual and physical environments that must be addressed throughout the typical connection sequence, along with the VMware and thirdparty products that remediate the issues. Together, VMware and VMware technologies comprise a security solution architecture for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)—an architecture that goes beyond the viruses, worms, and phishing attacks mostly commonly addressed in desktop security technology to include data loss, system management, and compliance monitoring.
This paper focuses on the best practices for protection against viruses in the VMware View 5 virtual desktop environment. Antivirus software is one of the largest segments in today’s computer security market. Nearly every enterprise deploys antivirus software on every desktop. As services such as security, mobility, access control, and line-of-business applications are all rolled up into the datacenter or cloud, antivirus practices need to be rolled up as well.
The Technology Previews 2012 of VMware Workstation and Fusion are available in VMware's Public Beta Programs. The objective of VMware's Beta Programs is to gain customer feedback on these products. Public betas are available to anyone interested in testing new software and providing feedback to VMware's product & engineering teams.
This Technology Preview includes changes to the underlying virtualization platform that are under active development. There are no guarantees that changes in this preview will be forward compatible with other VMware software, nor that these changes will be present in future supported releases of VMware Workstation. This Technology Preview does not include major new features.
Installation and operation of VMware Workstation on Windows 8 and Windows Server 8
Installation and operation of Windows 8 consumer preview and Windows Server 8 in a virtual machine
Rendering and graphics correctness issues on all platforms and applications
Linux 3D desktop experience, particularly when using the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Beta
Linux 3D application graphics correctness and performance
Stability in real-world scenarios including suspend/resume and display and device support
Nested Virtualization - running ESX and even trying Hyper-V* as a guest OS
VMware Labs is providing public access to the VMware Fusion Technology Preview 2012 to gather real-world feedback from users on a wide range of hardware and software configurations. The VMware Fusion Technology Preview includes changes to the core virtualization engine.
Installation and operation of Windows 8 previews in a virtual machine
Running Mac OS X (Mountain Lion) in a virtual machine
Rendering and graphics correctness issues on all platforms and applications
Linux 3D desktop experience, particularly Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and recent OpenSUSE releases, which should work out-of-the-box
Linux 3D application graphics correctness and performance
Changing boot devices in Mac OS X virtual machines
Performance and stability of virtual machine power operations including suspend, resume, pause and restart
Stability in real-world scenarios including suspend/resume and display and device plugging on the Mac
IgniteVM is used by database administrators to ensure service and availability of database instances running in VMware virtual machines. It shows the DBA what the database response time delays are, and what the contributing causes are at the instance, virtual machine, and physical layers.
IgniteVM is a 24/7 monitoring tool, based on industry best practice Performance Intelligence and Wait-Time analysis methods. IgniteVM supports Oracle, SQL Server, DB2 LUW and Sybase databases across all operating systems, running in VMware vCenter Server or stand-alone ESX/ESXi host environments.
Wait-Time Analysis and Virtualization Visibility
Wait-time analysis is an approach to application and database performance improvement that allows users to see where users are waiting the most. Traditionally, database performance is measured in the number of events and hit ratios. While somewhat meaningful and easy to capture, these statistics do not reflect a relevant view of the end-user experience nor do they reveal with any precision where the problem originated.
IgniteVM gives DBAs visibility to see virtual server operation correlated with database instance wait-time analysis data. Assessing database performance without visibility leaves database administrators (DBAs) guessing about the root cause, hampering their ability to take action to address their most important user-oriented problems.
VMware View Client for iPad is the first iPad client with support for the PCoIP display protocol for tight integration with VMware View and increased flexibility for the end-user. Enable end-users to simply and securely connect to their View-Based Windows desktop from an iPad with the best possible user experience on the Local Area Network (LAN) or across a Wide Area Network (WAN). The improvements in this new 1.4 version are:
