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

Beginning immediately any customer who is in the exploratory, deployment, comparative, or optimization phase of a virtual desktop project can benefit from the visibility Stratusphere provides backed by the expertise and experience of VMware Professional Services.  VMware Desktop Virtualization Assessments are aided tremendously when customers have relevant information on the real-time use of their infrastructure, networks, user activity, storage, applications, and application servers.  Customers are encouraged to reach out to their VMware account team or VMware Professional Services to learn more about VMware Desktop Virtualization Assessment Services and for program details and implementation.

The proper planning, design, and implementation of a virtual desktop and application strategy requires true visibility. “Liquidware Labs gives VMware Professional Services additional solutions to complete comprehensive Desktop Virtualization Assessments for our customers, which are critical in the early phases of VMware View™ implementations,” said Andy Knosp, Senior Director, VMware Professional Services.

Stratusphere collects performance metrics in order to evaluate how well the infrastructure will perform when moving to a next generation desktop such as VMware View, and/or Windows 7.  In addition, questions of sizing and scaling, infrastructure needs, and TCO/ROI can be more easily quantified as design decisions are rooted in contextual measurement vs. theory.

The truck was pretty impressive given that its a semi trailer. The inside was decorated much like an office or meeting room. There was 3 different presentation areas, a conference room and a datacenter area in the truck. I was not able to get a picture of the server rack because my batteries died. The rack had a vBlock setup in it, which consisted of Cisco UCS servers, EMC storage and Cisco for the networking. The tours were running about every 15 minutes and the turnout for the day was around 80 visitors.

The picture below was used to demo 3 different presentations. The first was follow the desktop the example given was a nurse that travels between rooms and wants her desktop to move from end point to end point without having to login each time. The rep used a smart card solution with auto login. The 2nd demo was called Access Across Boundaries, this just showed the different end point devices you can use to access view. Some that were shown were a netbook, iPhone with Wyse Pocket Cloud client installed and last was a monitor with hardware PCoIP installed.  The last demo in this area was around VMware thin app. they used Acrobat 5 as a demo and showed it running on a Windows 7 VM.

The last section of the tour was centered around connecting multiple monitors to your View desktop. Currently VMware View supports up to 4 monitors. The picture below shows the multiple monitor display, I was a little shaky when I took the picture.

Overall there was nothing for me to learn at the truck but that’s not why I went anyways. It was a good chance to check out the VMware truck and network with different VMware and EMC contacts. You can see the scheduled dates for the truck in your area here, be sure to check often. I received an email with dates in my area that were never published on the site.

• Offers a better alternative than replacing the default user profile (which isn’t supported and doesn’t help for users that already have profiles)
• Makes a distinction between private mode (1:1) and standard mode (1:many) desktops
• Provides the actual registry keys/values for all optimizations (to ensure that all settings can be set by Group Policy or login scripts)
• Gives best practices for optimizing the user profiles (like installing UPHclean)
• Excludes configurations and steps that don’t help (like defragmenting a disk before performing a volume copy)
• Details what registry changes are included in the XenConvert Optimizer tool (so you know what all those checkboxes are doing)

While VMware is getting several of RTO’s products in this purchase the Virtual Profiles product that is a profile management solution is surely to be the gem in this deal.

You can view the press release here and for more questions see the FAQ’s document here.

Ok to explain things a bit more. Basically Microsoft requires you to purchase your desktop license (XP/Win7) of course. But if you want to do a VDI solution using XenDesktop you mush also purchase a RS or terminal services license and a VECD license. This VECD is listed as needed if you wish to run a workstation OS in a data center. This license can cost from $23 to $100 plus depending on what your end point device is and if its covered under Software Assurance. This is all additional cost on top of the Citrix XenDesktop license that you need to purchase.

I was blown away when the Microsoft rep’s were explaining this to us in a recent call. And the fact they can tell people this with a straight face amazes me.