Last night VMware released Fusion 2.0. I got to see a first hand demo this morning and I was very impressed with the finished product. As I indicated in my post with the last RC released, they have really taken a great product and put the finishing touches on it.

Especially catching my eye was the improvements that have been made to Unity.  Running your Windows apps on your Mac desktop has never been more seamless.

Remember that current Fusion owners can upgrade to 2.0 for free!

http://www.vmware.com/download/fusion/

 9:04 - “Will it be moist and chewy?” - Additional Desktop Preview tracks now available and roadmap keynote will go more in depth.

9:02 - VMware View will provide Server-Based management capabilities, a full PC User Experience, and Universal Client capabilities.

8:56 - Live demo of VMware View.
Can successfully map virtualized apps even to 3D hardware acceleration on Client side.  Lego Indianna Jones!

8:55 - Further driving home the “Best of Both Worlds” approach.  In the future, there will be non-PC form factors including PDAs and Phones with the same user environment.

8:53 - Set environment for a role should follow a users identity… not the users equipment.  A role should have a given amount of computing resources, capabilities.

Announcing VMware View TM.  Desktops will always follow the user regardless of running on Thick or Thin platforms.  You and your data and environment do not belond to any specific device!

8:52 - Let’s talk about the desktop problem.  VMware is not only the leader in server architectures but also in Client side.

8:42 - “Technology Preview” with federated cloud preview.  Live demo of beta code.
Provided live demo of SLA violation.  Went out and retrieved additional computing resources from the cloud.

8:36 - This needs to be strategic in IT.  Business benefits of VDC-OS: Infrastructure Efficiency (do more with less or the same), Application agility, Business driven IT (not the other way around).

Where do you pull your resources from?; federating with the cloud.  Off-premesis computing contains obstacles: they are all different, how to the apps respond.  vCloiund contains an extended definition of what application loads can be.  Cloud operators and organizations can speak the same language.

8:31 - We don’t really know how applications will be written in the future.  People are always looking at new and better ways to write applications and services within frameworks.  Paul believes we will see much experimentation with writing to different frameworks.

Application vServices = moving from virtual appliances to vApps.  vApps will contain a SLA contract that the hypervisor can use to “plan”.  Will work with industry vendors to establish standards for these apps.

Virtual Center will be evolving to vCenter.  Will include new Management vServices to work with management partners to federate with the interface.

8:20 - Partner announcements…

vCompute: Intel and VMware collaboration on the new Xeon line of chips.  CPU supports vMotion.

vNetwork: Cisco and VMware collaboration on the new virtual network routers and switches.

vStorage: Site Recovery Manager enhancements for predictive disaster recoveryh services.

8:25 - First announcement: platform is evolving.  There will be a new/additional layer of extraction.  Not just for VMware, but will get played out in the industry as well.

VMware announces the VMware Virtual Datacenter O/S.  Will have services to handle specific different application needs.

8:21 - Everyone is into “Cloud” computing.  We are in the middle of a huge change and transition.  The world is becoming information and people centric, not infrastructure centric.  Think one single giant computer that can manage and assign resources.  Three main themes: VD OS, vCloud, cClient.

These address the following needs: 1) Efficient and Flexible Use of Applications and Resouces. 2) Federation with “the cloud”, 3) The desktop dilemma (desktop, laptop, VDI, Mac, PC, etc.)

8:20 - There are a lot of new developments in the “middle” ground for platforms taking advantage of the Best of Both World’s.

8:18 - VMware server products launced the server consolidations.

8:17 - VMware started on the client side with Workstation product.

8:16 - Client/Server computing was born and ultimately laid the foundation for VMware’s success.

8:13 - IT comes in 3 flavors: Cetralized (mainframe), Decentralized (PC), and Best of Both.

8:11 - Please welcome Paul to the stage.  Predictions are hard… espeically about the future.  2008 is a special year for VMware — 10th anniversary of VMware; 30 years ago Paul entered the industry.

VMworld is on Twitter.  Twitter you questions to vmworld2008 and Paul Maritz will answer your questions.

8:09 - Let’s get started!

8:00 - Lots of people, lots of energy!

Things are officially under way here in Las Vegas.  There is a great deal of energy in the air with 14,000 virtualization enthusiasts running around amidst the dinging of the slot machines.

The venue for the event is perfect and things have been running smoothly.  The first things that struck me is how friendly and helpful all of the event staff are.  That said, there are some scalability issues both with the registration line and the capacity of the VMworld website portal…. oh, yeah, and the wireless access.

VMware has let out the annoucement about its Virtual Data Center OS (VDC-OS).  Check out Scott Lowe’s blog for all the details:

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/09/15/follow-up-on-the-vdc-os-announcement/

Look for some more details to come out of tomorrow morning’s keynote address.

Recently, several sources have speculated as to whether or not Microsoft is planning to purchase Citrix. Some sources said that Microsoft would buy Citrix before VMware’s VMworld Conference, but clearly that did not happen. However, it is thought that an announcement, if at all, might be made in the next few days.

This raises the question…why? As Brian Madden points out, Citrix and Microsoft have essentially “teamed up” on many of their products already. Many of the Citrix products require additional Microsoft licenses or CALs to run anyway, so why would Microsoft spend all that money to buy Citrix? Read more of Brian’s thoughts at: http://www.brianmadden.com/blog/BrianMadden/Will-Microsoft-buy-Citrix

This also raises other questions… Could this be a response to the mixed reviews that Hyper-V is getting? If Citrix is acquired, which of its products would be assimilated into the Microsoft line, which would have continued R & D, and which would be dropped all together?

While this may be nothing more than speculation, if the software giant decides to take the plunge, things are going to get very interesting.

What are your thoughts? What are the implications of such a purchase? Why would Microsoft even consider this route? Let us know!

Wish you were there?  You can check out all the photos from the event on the official Flickr group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/vmworld2008/

Enjoy!

Well, usually, it stays there…
but for the next week you can stay plugged in to everything going on at the VMworld 2008 conference in Las Vegas right here on VMHero!  Ok, maybe not everything… but at least all of the important stuff.

For those of you who will be out there, I’ll see you there (perhaps even later this evening)!

VMHero got a redesign! We want to hear what you think of the new look. Thanks for all the support!