VMworld EMEA Day 2 Keynote
Published on 10 Oct 2012 · Filed in Liveblog · 504 words (estimated 3 minutes to read)This is a liveblog of the keynote at Day 2 of VMworld EMEA in Barcelona, Spain. Sorry for the lack of a liveblog for yesterday’s keynote; I was tied up in other meetings.
At 9:02 AM, Steve Herrod takes the stage. Herrod sets the stage that today will focus primarily on end-user computing, providing a recap of yesterday’s discussions around infrastructure and management. He starts out with a review of “the old way” of doing things versus the increasingly-popular “new way” (which often involves BYOD, tablets, mobile devices, etc.). There are three approaches/strategies to address these concerns. First, transform legacy into a service. Second, broker services. Third, deliver to multi-device workspaces.
First up in the discussion is this idea of transforming “legacy into a service.” Primarily this means how to handle Windows-based applications and managing Windows instances (like migrating to new versions of Windows). Naturally, VDI is a key part of this effort, and Herrod reviews the improvements that VMware made in the last release of View, version 5.1. (What isn’t mentioned is the incompatibility of View 5.1 with vSphere 5.1.) Herrod also mentions the new Rapid Desktop Program, which is a joint effort with partners like Nutanix, Pivot3, VCE, and others. He specifically calls out IBM as a first-time partner in Europe, and calls out Cisco’s ISR G2+VMware View appliance as an “interesting” approach to lowering acquisition costs.
This leads into a discussion of Wanova Mirage, which is an image-focused approach that works not only with VDI, but also with local execution so that users can work offline (a key need for highly-mobile laptop users) and/or can take full advantage of local hardware. Thus, Wanova provides both central management but also local execution.
At 9:15 AM, Vittorio takes the stage to provide a demonstration of some of the View/Mirage technologies.
At 9:23 AM, Daniel Beveridge takes the stage to discuss new ways of addressing Windows-based applications. This is Project AppShift, which was also discussed/introduced at VMworld US. New to VMworld EMEA is the announcement that voice control has already been integrated into AppShift, allowing users to directly access certain functions and tasks via voice control.
Herrod now shifts the discussion to brokering, which is necessary because of the proliferation of new types of applications, new platforms, and new application delivery mechanisms (app stores, SaaS, etc.). This leads to a discussion of Horizon and the Horizon Suite (which includes Horizon Data, formerly known as Octopus). Horizon Suite is described as “the platform for workforce mobility.”
At 9:30 AM, Ben Goodman joins Herrod on the stage to show off some of the Horizon Suite features and functionality.
At 9:45 AM, Herrod shifts the keynote away from brokering and the Horizon Suite on to the third topic: access. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really talk about access or any of the specific access technologies.
Immediately afterward, Herrod moves into the VMorld 2012 Challenge, where each of the Diamond sponsors will present “something cool” and the keynote attendees will vote for the best demonstration/presentation. I’ll close the liveblog here.