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VMware and Google Deal Will Enable Windows on Chromebooks

VMware and Google announced a partnership this week on enabling virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions for Google Chromebook laptops.

As part of the deal, Google Chromebooks will get native support for VMware's Horizon View VDI solution. Effectively, that support allows enterprises to deploy Windows desktops and Windows apps on low-cost Chromebooks.

The companies are tag teaming their technology offerings with the aim of driving down the cost of VDI, while making it hard for enterprises to pass up Chromebooks as potential business machines. The announcement was made yesterday at VMware's Partner Exchange conference in San Francisco.

"Google Chromebooks can save businesses about $5,000 per computer when compared to traditional PCs," said Amit Singh, president of Google Enterprise, in a VMware press release.

The details behind those cost savings weren't given in the release or at the conference, but there are cost savings to be had in hardware (with Chromebooks available for less than $200 apiece) and reductions in soft costs such as software and application licensing, maintenance and management in a virtualized environment.

The joint solution is available now as an on-premises service with the current Horizon View 5.3, but the plan is to eventually develop a solution that's fully cloud-enabled through VMware's Horizon DaaS either via VDI or Remote Desktop Services. Those services will be available through VMware or vCloud Service Providers before summer.

On a side note, VMware introduced a new mobile monitoring app for keeping tabs on the goings-on with one's vSphere infrastructure.

The vSphere Mobile Watchlist app allows for the creation of watchlists and alerts based on the inventory, health, and state of virtual machines. The app will suggest and offer access to VMware Knowledge Base articles based on the alerts that pop up and allow a limited number of operational controls to remedy situations.

For those issues that can't be fixed through the phone, the vSphere Mobile Watchlist app provides for the delegation of issues to other team members with better access.

The app is available for iPhones and Android phones through their respective stores.

About the Author

Michael Domingo has held several positions at 1105 Media, and is currently the editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.

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