Cisco and VMware are together simplifying the physical and virtual infrastructure management associated with virtual desktops deplyoments. to learn more, please check the VMware blogs. you’ll find the link at the end of the article.

Both Cisco and VMware have diligently delivered on our joint vision to regain control of the corporate desktop environment. We’ve integrated VMware View with the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS). We’ve made the Cisco Desktop Virtualization Solution with VMware View a core module of the Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI) system. Known simply as Cisco VXI with VMware View, the solution addresses today’s IT and end-user challenges: achieving scalable, high-performance desktop virtualization with media-rich communications, unified management, pervasive security and an uncompromised user experience. The integration of voice, video and virtual desktops transforms desktops into virtual collaborative workspaces.

In an effort to simplify implementation, we are working with our ecosystem partners including NetApp and EMC to deliver Cisco Validated Designs that provide detailed technical guidance based on validated and tested configurations. Both NetApp and EMC have worked with Cisco and VMware to deliver separate validated reference architectures for shared infrastructure and virtual desktops.

Customers of VMware, Cisco and NetApp, including Metro Health (a regional healthcare provider based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan) have embraced our joint solution, achieving significant cost and efficiency benefits. Read about optimizing clinical workflows with VMware View and Cisco VXI or hear what Metro Health has to say about utilizing desktop virtualization to optimize clinical workflows and improve care.

Metro Health in example is using VMware View with Cisco VXI and NetApp.

Link: http://blogs.vmware.com/alliances/2011/11/teaming-with-cisco-to-accelerate-virtual-desktop-deployment.html

Unfortunately I found this artivle only in German language but it may worth to translate with Google or another translation solution. The article is about the new Wyse X-Class Thin Laptop Client which comes with an SSD hard disk now. It supports Linux, Windows Embedded and Windows 7. And guess what! With Windows 7 it supports VMware View Local Mode. Great news! Did anyone already try that?

Link: searchdatacenter

There is an update for VMware ACE 2.7.(5) which is based on VMware Workstation 7.1. The release notes just haven been published today. The new version is a maintanance release and comes with a few improvements. Additionally it adds support for Ubuntu 11.04 as a guest operating system.

The ACE Management Server got the following enhancements:

• The AMS servers now run on RHEL 5.5 and SLES 10. RHEL 4 and SLES 9 are no longer supported hosts.
• The AMS servers now run Apache 2.2.15.
• The AMS appliance now runs on CentOS 5.5.
• Performance and scalability enhancements.

The update fixes the following issues:

• Accessing the ACE instance list from the Helpdesk Web user interface was slow if there were more than 1000 instances.
• Importing a large number of activation keys failed with the following error:
  Reply from server was too large.
  Subsequent attempts to read policy information for the virtual machine also failed. This release checks for the activation key limit, and the appropriate message appears if this failure occurs. In addition, the older policy is retained and used for subsequent operations.

Link: http://www.vmware.com/support/ace27/doc/releasenotes_ace275.html

You may have heard about VMware’s new Project Octopus during VMworld in Las Vegas. If not here is a quick summary. Project Octopus enables users to access files on any device from anywhere and share them with anyone. The solution can be deployed on premiese or consumed through a service provider. It integrates easily with your existing infrastructure and applications.

Please check the links to get more information:

• http://www.thatsmyview.net/2011/08/30/vmware-project-octopus/
• http://www.thatsmyview.net/2011/08/31/vmworld-tv-project-octopus-in-detail/

If you’re interested in bata testing the new solution please register here.

At this years VMworld in Las Vegas, VMware announced the new version of VMware View. View 5 brings up to 75% bandwidth reduction, persona management and VoIP support and lots more to you. Today I’ve seen that the download is now availabe. Go and try it!

Download: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_view/5_0

The Philips SpeechMagic Dictation Software is broadly used in the healthcare sector. But how can you use the dictation solution in a VMware View session? A VMware community member now posted a great community article about it. If you like it please don’t forget to award him the points in the community for this helpful post.

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-17068

You can also follow Jo on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/jo_strasser

Today VMware/Socialcast announced Strides, a cloud based task management tool for workforces. If you want to learn more about it, please visit the Stides website. You’ll find two videos which explain the solution and of course you’ll find some screenshots.

Link: Strides

Today VMware announced a lot of new solutions and products in the End User Computing area. Please find an overview of some really cool articles. A must read!

VMware End User Computing: VMworld 2011: Announcing VMware Horizon Mobile

VMware End User Computing: VMworld 2011: TECH PEVIEW — VMware Project Octopus

VMware End User Computing: VMworld 2011: VMware Horizon – Building the Platform for the Post-PC Era

VMware End User Computing: VMworld 2011: TECH PREVIEW – Introducing Projects AppBlast and Octopus – Delivering Universal Cloud Access

VMware End User Computing: VMworld 2011: Smartphones and the New Mobile Workforce (Info Graphic)

VMware End User Computing: VMworld 2011: VMware View 5 with Unified Communications

VMware End User Computing: VMworld 2011: Persona Management in VMware View 5

VMware End User Computing: VMworld 2011: VMware View 5 Advances User-Centric Computing Model Enabling a Better Desktop

VMwareTV: VMworld 2011 – VMware Horizon: Building the Platform for the Post-PC Era

VMwareTV: Mitel View UC

There was a lot of rumours going around on several websites in the last few month about the new feature set of VMware’s Enterprise Virtual Desktop solution View. Today the company announced the upcoming release and of course it comes with loads of great enhancements. The user experience is cleary the focus as it comes with a lot nice new features here but also the new management functionality looks great. Let’s see what you get with the new version.

• PCoIP Optimization controls
• View Media Services
• PCoIP Continuity Services
• View Client for Android
• Korean Language Support
• View Persona Management
• PCoIP Extension Services
• Enhanced Security Certificate Handling
• vSphere 5.0 Platform Support

A lot of new stuff, right? Let’s check out the new features!

PCoIP Optimization Controls

With the PCoIP Optimization Controls you can gain control oft he user experience performance requirements. There are three new controls which can help to reduce the used bandwidth by 75%. The Client Side Caching helps to cache the image content on the client to avoid the retransmission. This setting is enabled by default and you can configure the cache size. Usually the PCoIP protocol delivers a lossless image which is great but also uses a lot of bandwidth, depending on the content. With the new version you can disable the „Build to lossless“ option and customize the time to build images to a fully lossless state. Those options will help to reduce the bandwith required. For environments where you need a lossless, high quality image with a rich user exerience i.e. Healthcare Imaging or Designers, you shouldn’t disable the option. Use it more for task or knowledge workers and other typical desktop use cases.

View Media Services

The View Media Services include the Unified Communications, the Printer Support, Clipboard Support and the Media Services for 3D Graphics. With View 5.0 VMware delivers a integrated and scalable Unified Communications and virtual desktop solution. View offers new interfaces for partners companies to deliver a VoIP integration. This is ideal for call centers, knowledge workers or home offices. Leading vendors like Avaya, Cisco and Mitel will support the new technology.

The second part of the Media Services (for 3D graphics) enables richer graphics and applications fort he end user. There is no need to purchase specialized graphics cards as it is a non-hardware accelerated basic 3D capability for non-worlstation users. It supports DirectX9 and OpenGL2.1 apps, like Google Earth and also AERO. The great news ist hat there are no client dependencies for this functioniality. You’ll get acceptable performance on the WAN up to 100ms latency.

The next part of the Media Services is the View Media Services for Printer Support. This is enabling location based printing for non-Windows clients. This is an enhancement which extends the location based printing function for Window clients which already was part oft he VMware View solution. It helps the ser to print tot he closest network based printer. There are several location detection rules including IP address, MAC address, Username, User Group and Client hostname.

The last part is the View Clipboard support which expands support for copying and pasting content between the local machine and the virtual desktop. It’s configurable via GPO and there are four different policies. Allow local to virtual, allow virtual to local, allow bi-directional, Disbaled. The function supports files up to 1 MB size which can also include graphics and rich text documents and it will preserve the formatting.

PCoIP Continuity Services

With this function the users will automatically be reconnected to their virtual desktops after a lost of connectivity. The session will seamlessly recover during loss of network of 30 seconds. The benefit here is clearly a better experience and it minimizes end user productivity disruptions.

VMware View Client for Android

A few weeks ago VMware publsihed a tech preview oft he VMware View Client for Android. Now the client goes GA! It’s made for Android Honeycomb and later tablets and it does support the PCoIP protocol. View 4.6 is a minimum if you want to use this client.

View Persona Management

Back in February 2010 VMware announcec that they’re going to aquire RTO’s Windows profile management solution. With the View Persona Management you’ll get a just in timeretrieval of your user persona and you don’t need any infrastructure fort hat. The profile management is integrated in the View components. You can maintain the personalization between sessions with no dependency on Roaming profiles but it will still support them. Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows Xp is supported.

PCoIP Extension Services

The PCoIP Extension Services will gain you an insight for troubleshooting your View environment. You’ll get per session statistics for protocol performance and network impact. There are 23 statistics available in 4 different categories. The Extension Services support WMI based tools. This component enabled you to do performance monitoring, proactively troubleshoot issue and find a quick resolution for them. Here are some statistic details:

Enhanced Security

On the client side VMware has added enhanced security capabilities, especially for client certificate handling. Like standard browser-based models, VMware View uses known SSL security models. With that you get another mechanism to enforce higher security and using commercial certificates. All VMware View Clients can be configured in three ways:

1.)  Disable certificate checking (TRUSTED network)

2.)  Prompt user to accept/igonore common certificate erros (This is similar to web browser defaults)

3.)  Mandatory certificate checking (For Internet/DMZ)

Last but not least: VMware vSphere 5 Platform support!