Microsoft Simplifies VDI Branding
Through acquisition and development, Microsoft has a confusing array of virtualization tools that address PC-style computing. You've got the old-style PC virtualization in which one machine becomes more than one. You have application virtualization that came from the acquisition of Softricity (this used to be called Softgrid but was renamed App-v). And you have server-based thin client computing in all its forms.
There's more but I'll lose you if I go on too long.
OK, one more: RemoteFX was acquired along with Callista Technology by Microsoft. This product lets high-end graphics apps render when delivered on thin clients -- not an easy task to pull off. This is a form of server-based thin clint computing, but a very specific one.
To make all the confusion I laid out earlier go away, at least from a branding standpoint, Microsoft announced RemoteFX is now the new name for some of this stuff, at least the pure VDI tools. This is almost exactly what Microsoft did with its four separate lines of ERP/CRM tools. Instead of fully integrating them, it just lumped them all under one name: Dynamics.
As far as I can tell, there are still a lot of desktop-oriented virt tools that don't fall under the RemoteFX umbrella, so I'll remain a mite confused (but I'm used to that).
Do you use any Microsoft PC, desktop or application virtualization wares? If so, how do you like them? Let us all know by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 06/18/2012 at 1:19 PM