VMware Virtual Desktop Manager Delivers Rich Multimedia to a PC

VMware Desktop Manager 2 Scales to Tens of Thousands of Desktops

(03.07.08) - VMware announced enhancements to its next generation connection broker, VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2. Designed for enterprise desktop customers, this updated release provides an enhanced user experience, lower total cost of ownership and improved scalability. VMware is also expanding the global reach of this industry-leading software with new localized versions available in German and Japanese.

By extending the VMware virtualization platform to the desktop with VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), IT administrators can deploy desktop virtual machines and deliver a complete desktop experience that is easy to manage, fast to deploy, less costly to maintain, always-current and radically more secure. VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2, a key component of VMware VDI, connects remote clients to centralized virtual desktops that can be accessed securely from almost anywhere and from many different hardware platforms. Using Virtual Desktop Manager, VDI administrators can manage thousands of desktops at once while greatly reducing provisioning time for new desktops. Coupled with VMware's industry leading virtualization platform, Virtual Desktop Manager can provide customers the lowest cost of ownership by leveraging VMware Infrastructure's patented memory over-commit feature to run more desktop virtual machines per server.

ViaHealth is a family of health care providers serving the greater Rochester, New York area through facilities such as Rochester General Hospital.

The latest advancements in Virtual Desktop Manager 2.1 include:

· Improved Scalability: VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2.1 can run up to 5,000 concurrent connections per cluster of Virtual Desktop Manager servers and provides enterprises the ability to scale to tens of thousands of desktop connections through the use of multiple clusters. In addition, VMware Virtual Desktop Manager enables hundreds of desktop virtual machines to be created in a single storage pool. This enhancement gives customers unparalleled scalability to extend investments in their storage systems.

· Enhanced End User Experience: VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2.1 offers a new multi-media redirection feature for XP desktops. This feature redirects certain multi-media codecs to the local PC for rendering of full-motion video and audio.

· Improved manageability: VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2.1 features a new transaction logging capability for improved management.

· Expanded Support for Global Organizations: Localized versions are now available in German and Japanese, to accelerate user adoption in global organizations.

HVB Information Services (HVB IS), one of the largest IT services providers in the financial services sector, uses VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and Virtual Desktop Manager 2.1 to manage their desktop environments. (VMware: ra)