So how does this work out since Lab Manager was sold as normal per socket licenses and vCloud Director is now sold on the new VMware per VM licenses. It breaks down like this for each Lab Manager license you will get 20 per VM licenses of vCloud Director. So if you purchased 6 sockets of Lab Manager that would equal 120 Per VM licenses for vCD.

I personally could not find this promotion on the Partner portal so you should inquire with your VMware rep for details.

See some details from the PR released from VMware.

At VMworld 2010 in San Francisco, VMware will preview a cloud-based management service — codenamed Project Horizon — that will securely extend enterprise identities into the cloud and provide new methods for provisioning and managing applications and data based on the user, not the device or underlying operating system.

Project Horizon will establish a user’s “Cloud Identity,” securely extending on-premise directory services between private and public clouds and enabling customers to take advantage of the flexibility and new services in the public cloud while maintaining the security and control from their private clouds.

“A cohesive desktop strategy should provide secure, direct access to many types of applications, including SaaS and legacy and mobile applications, regardless of device type or location,” said Mark Bowker, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “Project Horizon is an example of how VMware has the potential to help dramatically transform desktop and application delivery services, maintain IT control, and ensure a productive, personalized experience for the end user.”

So if you are a VMUG member or want to be run out and join and purchase one of these sweet T-Shirts. With any proceeds that I make will go to support this blog and the Chicago VMUG blog that I also run. Drop me a comment here or an email or tweet me if you have any questions.

Link to shirt to purchase

There are two versions of View 4.5 available now with features that I will list below. There is an Premier license that includes the full Suite of VMware VDI related products and the Enterprise edition with covers the base View VDI install.

So what does VMware promise that View 4.5 can delivery on? It now offers Windows 7 support which can increase speed and reduce the cost and complexity of migrating to Windows 7. Some other important benefits are Simplified Desktop Management and Application Management via VMware ThinApp.

What is included with VMware View 4.5

• VMware vSphere for Desktops – #1 Virtualization hypervizor
• VMware View Manager – Central Management for Desktops
• VMware ThinApp – Agentless Application Virtualization solution
• VMware Composer – Create Desktop images and linked clones
• VMware vCenter Server for Desktops – Management for vSphere Server
• VMware View Client – Allows access to desktops in Datacenter now with Local mode for offline use
• VMware vShield Endpoint – Enables offload and centralization of AntiVirus & Malware scanning

VMware View 4.5 product page

In this new View client they have created new custom gesture integration to make using a Windows desktop easier from an iPad. Some of the new gestures that they have created are listed below.

New iPad Features and Gestures for View client

• Gesture to bring up iPad keyboard
• They created a virtual touchpad
• System preference settings to allow for client personalization
• A system monitor to show you about network performance

To break this down in simple terms. I see this as the public version of vCloud that provides you the ability to link up your internal private cloud build on vCloud Director. This service allows you to provision app’s and VM’s out in the public space when you need to. Maybe its because you are out of space on your private cloud or that you just want something out there for other reasons. The vCloud Datacenter services gives you the interoperability that you want with ease of use and VMware is promising the security that Corporations are demanding. This will all be provided by vCloud Director and the new vShield product family.

Here some of what VMware has to say about vCloud Datacenter services.

Built to predefined specifications and based on secure VMware cloud infrastructure technology, vCloud Datacenter Services provide multilevel, auditable security through SAS 70 Type II or ISO 27001 compliance. vCloud Datacenter Services also provide best-in-class virtual firewall capabilities, Layer 2 isolation, role-based access control and the ability to integrate with Active Directory. Access to end user activity logs keeps you in control and allows you to calibrate user access levels for enhanced end user security.

Because vCloud Datacenter Services are built upon the same, globally consistent foundation as your internal datacenter or private cloud, VMware vCloud Director and VMware vSphere, internal virtualized applications can be easily moved to a vCloud Datacenter Services without re-architecting or refactoring. Rather than being locked into a proprietary cloud platform as you may be with other providers, you can choose the vCloud Service Provider that best meets your needs and manage, move and operate your applications as if they were on site.

Link to vCloud Datacenter services at VMware

Here are some of the differences between what vCloud Datacenter Service has to offer compared to public clouds.

I will try and provide some more details about each product below gathering any details that are available as of today. In the image below are some of the concerns that VMware is address based on what Enterprises have been telling them.

vShield Endpoint – vShield Endpoint provides on-host antivirus and malware protection that reduces performance latency and eliminates the need to maintain individual security agents in each and every virtual machine, helping to simplify security administration while minimizing the risk of malware infections. Datasheet

vShield App -VMware vShield App protects applications in the virtual datacenter from network-based threats. vShield App gives organizations the ability to create and manage business-relevant policies that adapt to dynamic cloud environments. It also provides deep visibility into network communications between virtual machines and granular enforcement through security groups. Datasheet

vShield Edge – vShield Edge is a network gateway solution that protects the edges of the virtual datacenter with DCHP, network address translation (NAT), firewalling, load balancing, site-to-site VPN, port group isolation and other capabilities that help organizations maintain proper segmentation between different organizational units. Datasheet

vShield Manager – Included with all vShield products, vShield Manager provides a central point of control for managing, deploying, reporting, logging and integrating third-party security services. Working in conjunction with vCenter Server, vShield Manager also enables role-based access control and administrative delegation as part of a unified framework for managing virtualization security.

vShield Zones – VMware vShield Zones, included with vSphere, provides basic protection from network-based threats in virtual datacenters, with application firewalling and policy management based on administrator-defined zones, using basic traffic information such as the source IP address, the destination port, and so on.

Here is a quote from a VMware product release.

Enterprise Partner Extranets – vShield lets enterprises extend their networks and application resources to branch offices, home offices and business partner sites through site-to-site VPN services that offer simplified provisioning, streamline administrative tasks and improve scalability. All traffic between sites is encrypted using IPsec to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of all site-to-site communications.

vShield Product Family Brochure

VMware vCloud(TM) Director: A new model for delivering and consuming
    infrastructure services
     VMware vCloud Director changes the way IT
    delivers infrastructure services and the way users access and consume
    them. By extending the resource pooling capabilities of VMware
    vSphere, VMware vCloud Director enables IT to create "virtual data
    centers" (VDCs) -- logical pools of compute, network and storage
    resources with defined management policies, SLAs and pricing. IT
    organizations can offer these VDCs -- along with catalogs of other
    infrastructure and application services such as virtual appliances,
    VMs, and OS images -- to users through fully automated self-service
    access.

So what is vCloud Director

To put it in the simplest terms it’s a layer that sits on top of vCenter server and abstracts all the resources that vCenter has under it’s control. You then combine all of these resources into large pools for your Customers or Tenants to consume.  Also vCloud Director provides the Customer a Self Service portal to use.

So what exactly are the resources that vCloud Director abstracts from vCenter server? Below is a list of the resources and the vSphere term to bring it all together.

• Compute resources = vSphere Clusters and Resource Pools
• Network resources = dvSwitches and portgroups
• Storage = Datastores ( VMFS and NFS )

These resources are then presented to you via the Self Service Portal of vCD. As an administrator you can use the vCloud Director Portal to split up and assign resources to Customers, Department or some other business division. These call also be referred to as an Organization, this sounds a lot like Lab Manager. The vCloud Director product was designed to work with both Enterprise and Service Provider clouds. The resources are divided up and assigned to a Virtual Datacenter or vDC. There are two types of vDC’s available withing vCloud Director.

• Provider Virtual Datacenter ( Provider vDC )
• Organization Virtual Datacenter ( org vDC )

The Provider Virtual Datacenter is the base for compute resources. When creating a Provider Virtual Datacenter you will need to select a resource pool. Nex you will need to associate at least one datastore with the Provider vDC, this might be all LUNs masked to your cluster. Duncan from Yellow Bricks layed out the following theory

Some of my colleagues described the Provider vDC as the object where you specify the SLA and I guess that explains the concept a bit more. So for instance you could have a Gold Provider vDC with 15K FC disks and N+2 redundancy for HA while your Silver Provider vDC just offers N+1 redundancy and runs on SATA disk… everything is possible.

Now that a Provider vDC was created you can create an Org vDC and associate the Org vDC to a vCD Organization. Its possible that an Organization can have multiple Org vDCs associated to it. For example it’s possible to have 3 Org vDCs owned by a single Organization across two Provider vDCs. Those provider vDCs could each have a different SLA.

So in my thought vCloud Director does seem be Lab Manager on steroids which is a phrase that I’ve heard before. Many of these ideas do seem to be based off of the Organizations, configurations and networking that Lab Manager was using.

Pricing and Availability
VMware vCloud Director is currently available and is licensed per VM starting at $150 per VM.

Build Secure, Multi-Tenant Clouds – VMware vCloud Director lets administrators group users by policy, such as a business unit, division or subsidiary. Each group has isolated virtual resources, independent LDAP-authentication, specific policy controls and unique catalogs. To ensure security and compliance in a cloud environment where multiple organizations share infrastructure resources, VMware vCloud Director includes VMware vShield perimeter protection, port-level firewall, and NAT and DHCP services.

vCloud Director Links

Download link for vCloud Director

vCloud Director Install and Configuration guide

vCloud Director User Guide

vCloud Director Administrators guide

Jae Ellers of Mister VM

Duncan Epping of YellowBricks.com

Simon Gallagher of VINF.net

Josh Townsend of VMtoday

Bob Plankers of LoneSysAdmin

Vlad Seget of VLadan.fr

Bill Hill of VirtualBill’s Blog

Interview with Lab staff by VirtualBill