Back in March VMware published the first version of Horizon Workspace which includes a component called Data. Data is the former Project Octopus, the “Dropxbox for Enterprises” without leveraging public cloud technologies. That means that your data stays in your datacenter and will be synced on the devices allowed in the policy IT has created. Within the web interface for the user, files can be previewed. By default PDF files are getting rendered but for Microsoft Office files you’ll need to install either LibreOffice or Microsoft Office components. Be aware that for Microsoft Office components each user needs a proper MS Office license. You can read more about this in the Horizon Workspace installation guide. So if you want to go for free you should use LibreOffice instead. This works also well. One of my customers had an issue whilst installing the LibreOffice. His Workplace appliances wasn’t connected to the Internet and so they couldn’t install the needed components. With a quick workaround it was possible. They’ve downloaded the zipped RPM from the LibreOffice website (Link included in the installer Script) and put it onto a local web server. After changing the download address of the file from the LibreOffice server to the local server (bold marking in the script) it just worked fine.

echo $PLATFORM | egrep -q UBUNTU

if [ $? = 0 ]; then

 LIBREOFFICE_URL=http://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/3.5.6.2/deb/x86_64/LibO_3.5.6rc2_Linux_x86-64_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz

  PKGTYPE=DEB

  PKGCMD=”$DPKG -i”

else

  #LIBREOFFICE_URL=http://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/3.5.6.2/rpm/x86_64/LibO_3.5.6rc2_Linux_x86-64_install-rpm_en-US.tar.gz

  LIBREOFFICE_URL=http://192.168.1.11:280/LibO_3.5.6rc2_Linux_x86-64_install-rpm_en-US.tar.gz

  PKGTYPE=RPM

  PKGCMD=”$RPM -U –force –quiet –nodeps”

fi

Veeam has published a new version of their Backup & Replication software. Check their website for an overview. Here’re the facts.

• Free e-discovery and item recovery for Microsoft Exchange
• Easy VM recovery from SAN snapshots
• Advanced monitoring, reporting and capacity planning (requires Veeam Management Suite 6.5)
• New hypervisor support: VMware vSphere 5.1

Link: http://www.veeam.com/vm-backup-recovery-replication-software.html?ad=menu

Product data sheet for VMware: http://www.veeam.com/veeam_backup_6_5_vmware_en_ds.pdf

Brian Madden has published a great video interview with Terardici’s Stuart Robinson.

Definitely check this video as it gives you a great overview and a comparison between Windows Server 2008 R2 RDP vs. PCoIP.

Nice!

Link: http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/videos/archive/2012/09/06/vmworld-2012-teradici.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqO97j3chGU

I’d like to share a new information with you which was brought to my attention by Eric Sloof. Christian Hammond had released a first tech preview of WSX. Please visit Eric’s website for more information.

Link: http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/2096-Tool-Update-VMware-WSX-July-Tech-Preview-Release.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Ntpronl+%28Eric+Sloof+%7C+http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ntpro.nl%29

Dean Flaming over at the VMware EUC team has published a great new article on about ThinApp Factory on the VMware ThinApp blog. The article gives you a deeper insight into the ThinApp Factory Feeds and Recipies. Well done Dean!

Link: http://blogs.vmware.com/thinapp/2012/07/thinapp-factory-feeds-and-faq.html

Today VMware has announced the general availability of Horizon AppManager 1.5. The new version makes it possible to manage Windows and web-based applications in private and public cloud environments. The Horizon AppManager is VMware’s universal service broker for the Post-PC era.

Link: http://blogs.vmware.com/euc/2012/06/horizon-application-manager-is-now-generally-available.html

Principled Technologies published an independent study which compares VMware View 5 with Citrix XenDesktop 5.5. Using the Login VSI Performance Measurement tool they found out that View 5 outperforms XenDesktop 5.5.

The VMware View 5  was equal or superior to XendDesktop 5.5 in bandwidth consumed and CPU resources required from both client and server when running common office applications. Only the unique case of client-side Flash movie rendering did Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 performs better than VMware View 5. The reduction in bandwidt and CPU across our wide variety of workloads means that View-based virtual desktops can achieve greater density, which can results in cost savings for an organization.

Link: http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2012/03/vmware-view-5-outperforms-citrix-xendesktop.html

PDF Download: http://www.principledtechnologies.com/clients/reports/VMware/PCoIP_HDX_0312.pdf