This is very cool stuff. Kidaro is kind of what VMware ACE wants to be. The products are basically all about offline virtual desktop usage.  When you think about, in this day and age, laptops are still a management nightmare. VDI poses to solve some of these issues but they have three big drawbacks:

1. Graphically intense applications are a challenge due to the current presentation protocols (RDP / ICA)

2. They alway require network connectivity so offline usage is not an option.  

3. Peripheral connectivity poses a challenge since you don't connect to physical hardware.

So to  solve these issues you need a workstation that runs on the local hardware. But you still want the advantage of central management. Enter Kidaro. What Kidaro offers is the deployment of secure, corporate-managed virtual desktops that run locally on enterprise or 3rd-party PCs. So they way this typically works is that you point your "whatever" machine (as long as it has the specs to run the VM) to a webpage, select the virtual machine you need to run and it is downloaded and executed on the local machine. This virtual machine is a single download that comprises of all the hypervisor, the OS, applications, settings, policies,  everything. 

Kidaro offers some cool components in this technology: 

• Kidaro vDNA : call it an advanced Flex Profiles to "save" all of the user specific data when the user logs off the VM
• Kidaro ToGo : allows you to run everything from a USB drive (that had better be on heck of a USB drive if you want any kind of performance out of it)
• Kidaro TrimTransfer : optimizing the transfer of the virtual image by doing a block level compare and only sending the delta's or the stuff that is not there yet.
• "Workspace": a very cool feature that allows you to have "published" applications from a VM. This means that if you run AutoCAD from a Kidaro VM you can only show the AutoCAD application instead of the whole VM. Like a seamless application. VMware is also working on a feature like this. They call it "Unity".

This is a pretty cool solution that fills the void that most enterprises have in their desktop management strategies. Lots of us are struggling with mobile user desktop management. VMware ACE already tried to address this issue but this did not take off. I think that the Kidaro acquisition has great potential because the time is now (more) right to address (offline) (local) desktop virtualization and of course Microsoft has the "power" to push this product. The only thing is that this product is only available as part of MDOP (read the MS Press release ). So in other words you need to have Software Assurance to be able to get it.

The only thing that is missing for me is the technology to get the image across to the user the first time. Sure they have their TrimTransfer technology but that only helps after you have downloaded the image a first time. Streaming would be a very good solution. Oh wait? Doesn't  Citrix have Ardence? Isn't that a coincidence...

So what does VMware think? I kind of got the vibe that VMware is a bit disappointed that VMware ACE didn't take off the way they wanted it to take off. But at VMworld Europe they reemphasized the importance of offline virtual desktop usage . I am pretty sure that they will integrate VMware ACE with VDM2 to facilitate this requirement. The question is when Vmware will have this ready. VDM3?

Comments (0)

Show/Hide comment form

Comment
Name
Email
Website
Write the displayed characters
	Add Comment