At VMware’s core we are a collection of proud engineers.

We take quality extremely seriously, we take our time to integrate our products and test them thoroughly. Then we ship and it is a big celebration. It should be!!!! It is hard, rewarding work.

Today, I am thrilled to announce that we have reached another major milestone with our End-User Computing portfolio – we are turning the vision we unveiled at VMworld last year into shipping products!!!!

In a nutshell, our vision is to deliver the end-user management platform for the post-PC-only era.

• End-user value: It delivers end-users their desktop, apps and data with a consistent user experience across all their devices.
• IT value: It gives IT a single management platform that empowers IT to define the policies that determine which users get what, when and with what level of security.

Your Personal Cloud: Enabling a New Way to Work

Today, we are announcing products across all three axes of our strategy:

• Desktop as a Service,
• Apps as a service, and
• Data as a service.

View 5.1 – Deliver your Desktop as a Service

VMware View has always been the easiest way to deliver the desktop as a service on VMware vSphere. In this release we have made major advancements in two main areas

• Lowering the cost of acquisition and ownership
• Improving user experience and Client support

With the introduction of View Storage Accelerator, we are improving storage performance between 50% (average load) to 10 times (peak loads) without increasing cost.

This advance further reduces the cost of deploying virtual desktops with VMware View to where, if a customer follows our reference architecture, costs fall below that of physical desktops.

We are also announcing the availability of vCenter Operations for View, an edition of vCOps that specifically support VMware View and gives our customers complete visibility from the View Client protocol all the way back to their vSphere infrastructure.

On the user experience front, we further optimized the PCoIP protocol to the point that, for most use cases, it is hard to tell a virtual desktop apart from physical.  To top it all off, we now have clients on all major platforms.

Horizon Application Manager 1.5 – Your Cloud Broker
Horizon Application Manager is about delivering applications as services through an enterprise application store. In this release of Horizon we are making the product available on-prem, worldwide with support for SaaS applications and Windows (ThinApp) applications.

This is a screen shot from the internal deployment at VMware where employees have single-sign-on access to all our SaaS apps and Windows apps.  With a simple click on a Windows app in Horizon, employees can run the Windows app locally on their Windows desktop (Physical of Virtual).

Project Octopus Beta – Your Personal Data Cloud

Today, we are also announcing the launch of VMware Project Octopus Beta. Octopus is our enterprise-grade file syncing and sharing solutions. It gives end users access their files synced across all of their devices, while providing IT an on-prem solution where they have control with asset logging, management, and the ability to remotely wipe data off of lost devices.

In a nutshell, VMware Project Octopus Beta gives IT peace of mind by allowing them to keep their corporate data safely within their firewall, while allowing them to give their end users an alternative to cloud-based file syncing services.

I want to thank our engineers who worked hard on these release and the customers who helped us shape them with insightful feedback and participation in alpha and beta programs.

Now that this release is out, we take a moment to celebrate.  But then, the celebration is going to be quickly over and we are going to be busy writing more great code, because…

CODE RULES!!

Vittorio

Here is a introductory video I recorded with Jeff Platon who runs Cisco Solution Engineering. There is a ton of activity going on in the market between Cisco and VMware around VXI. Stay tuned for more…

Vittorio

Since then, we have been heads down executing against that vision gaining momentum with VMware View 5.0 which continues to show great market momentum and most importantly great public  Customer deployments as well as working hard on building out the rest of the EUC portfolio.

Last week, I had the pleasure to demo what we are working on to infoWorld. I even let them drive the demo themselves… ah!!!! Code rules!!! Also, one of our reference customers, Foley & Lardner was featured in a Wall Street Journal as a example in production of ho to enable BYOD today with VMware View. Also, TechTarget caught us with our hands in the… Apple app store… uploading the project Octopus client.

Here is the summary of this coverage.

VMware Tackles Enterprise Personal Cloud

http://www.infoworld.com/t/cloud-computing/vmware-tackles-enterprise-personal-cloud-189953

InfoWorld’s Eric Knorr notes he was “blown away” by his AppBlast demo, and goes on to say that along with Horizon Application Manager and Horizon Mobile, VMware’s EUC vision is coming together: “the big picture emerging from this swarm of new and existing technology has undeniable appeal: a consumerized personal cloud for users that could deliver a new level of device independence, while providing IT with a secure solution that provides granular policy-based control.”

VMware Pulls the Private Cloud Back into the Enterprise, Plus Training

http://siliconangle.com/blog/2012/04/02/vmware-pulls-the-private-cloud-back-into-the-enterprise-plus-training/

SiliconANGLE’s Maria Deutscher bases this piece primarily on the InfoWorld article, quoting Eric Knorr’s extremely positive assessment of AppBlast within. She also notes that with Project Octopus, these two services “fit in quite nicely into a broader workplace personal cloud picture, one that connects mobile-era flexibility with centralized IT control for the admin.”

When Business and Personal Combine

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204603004577271670419776332.html

The WSJ’s Ian Sherr highlights VMware customer Foley & Lardner, LLP in an article examining BYOD and employees’ use of personal devices in the workplace. Sherr notes improved IT control as a major motivator for implementing desktop virtualization solutions – quoting Foley & Lardner’s CIO as stating that its VMware solutions “let employees fully access desktops, software and documents stored on remote servers. Workers can buy nearly any laptop they wish with less concern for loss or theft, because their work is stored on company servers, not the laptop. Some of the lawyers have iPads with VMware View, he adds, which lets them access a Windows desktop, apps and documents as if they were at the office. ‘We feel we have more control over this now,’ he says.”

VMware Octopus hits Apple App Store

http://www.consumerizeit.com/blogs/consumerization/archive/2012/04/03/vmware-octopus-hits-apple-app-store.aspx

TechTarget’s Colin Steele reports on VMware’s release of its Project Octopus iOS app, noting that while available information on the app (and Project Octopus as a whole) is currently pretty limited, “the release of the iOS Octopus app likely means that more details on the service as a whole will be coming soon.”

• want to work on a fast growing product in a fast growing company
• want to get a chance to define a whole new market
• want to help defining the future of end user computing
• rather do than pontificate
• like pragmatism over perfectionism
• work hard, play hard

but most importantly, if you:

• like to work with an amazing engineering team which makes the world go round
• care and kick butt

Contact me!!  

Don’t send me your resume. Just tell me what you have done, with whom you have done it and how you delighted your customers.

Nice written boring resumes will be ignored. I can find you on LinkedIn if I need to.

Your education is important only if you have a track record of putting it to good use.

I am a demanding boss who you will love to work for and I will stay out of your way. We are here to change the world, not to step on each other.

Vittorio

In the latest report from Goldman Sachs titled “TMT Desktop: Secular themes persistent, despite volatile macro tide” and published on February 12th 2012, VMware View continues to be the Desktop Virtualization solution that is most likely to be adopted in the market.

This is a trend that has been consistent since 2008 the year after VMware invented and launched the first VDI product and it has resulted into increasing View momentum and and most importantly great customer references.

Ciao

Vittorio

Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City

Learn how Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City is using VMware View desktop virtualization software to quickly deploy virtual desktops that meet security requirements outlined by HIPPA regulations while providing clinicians the anytime anywhere access they need to provide the best patient care possible.

“Citrix was very complicated and difficult to maintain. With VMware, it just works out of the box. We don’t spend a lot of time keeping it up and running like we did with Citrix. And now I have time to do other things that I need to be working on instead of just keeping it up and running.”

Video Testimonial

City of Pittsburgh

The City of Pittsburgh’s City Information Systems Department deployed VMware desktop virtualization and server consolidation solutions to support its nearly 3,000 users ranging from public safety, police, and fire to the various branches of local government including the Mayor’s Office, the City Council, and Controller’s Office.

Podcast Interview

Video Testimonial

Seattle University

Long time VMware and View customer.  Regional university in Seattle University that deployed virtual desktops back in 2009 when they were looking for a solution for their computer labs. They looked at both Citrix and VMware but previous experiences dictated that CTX was expensive and complicated to deploy and manage…Additionally they had a big investment in VMware so they went View.  They have about 600 desktops.

Video Testimonial

Case Study

DER

Germany’s largest travel agency has remade their PC landscape across 580 branch offices using virtual desktops. We’ll learn how Germany’s DER Deutsches Reisebüro redefined the desktops delivery vision and successfully implemented 2,300 Windows XP desktops as a service.

Podcast Interview

Ciao!

Vittorio

Q4 2011 was another record breaking quarter for VMware View finishing a great year for desktop virtualization at VMware and our customers.

This success was driven by more customer deployments as well as the momentum created by the release of View 5.0, the greatest release of View to date.

View 5.0 removed the two remaining technical competitive hurdles as I blogged here, while doubling down on simplicity, scalability (with vSphere 5.0) and ease of use. This is where the ROI for desktop virtualization really comes from, you need to be able to to quickly deploy the solution, scale it and realize the value. That’s where View excels. 

The success achieved with our customer in 2011 has resulted into two significant trends: Customer References and Vendor Preference

View Customer References

VMware View continues to have the largest number of big public references in the market as I wrote here and here. More coming later this week. These are customers who will get on stage or take calls and will proudly talk about their View deployments wit 8000, 1000, 15000, and 25000 seats.

Desktop Virtualization Vendor Preferences

VMware is a top vendor when it comes to customer preference for Desktop Virtualization according to the major financial analyst who cover this space, such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

I am excited about a busy 2012 where we are staying focused on helping more customers realize value from VMware Desktop products, while executing against the broader End User Computing vision that we announced at VMworld.

Vittorio

ADP Dealer Services

ADP Dealer Services sought an end-user computing (EUC) solution from VMware to enable quick provisioning and de-provisioning of development environments. The ADP Dealer Services team chose VMware View for global deployment. With the View client, the developers access their remote workstations, either locally or remotely. The remote View workstation securely interacts with any ADP application from anywhere. The company has realized two great benefits – the ability for each administrator to manage 300-400 workstations, and the ability of the team to create and deploy workstations exceedingly fast, up to 50 or 60 a day.

Podcast Interview

Video Testimonial

Here is a video interview with ADP CIO Bill Naughton

You can find more information and references here, and here

Vittorio

Many have asked me where they can see it. Here is our CTO Scot Davis demoing it at Vmworld 2011

Ciao

Vittorio

Many people have asked me where they can find the videos.

Here is the demo from the end user perspective

And this is the video of the whole keynote

Ciao

Vttorio