Virtualization has enabled businesses of all sizes to get more out of their technology, while simultaneously reducing costs, and increasing productivity. One dream many business owners have is that they have the ability to access their Windows desktops from their phone or tablet. A recent announcement from virtualization giant VMware brings your Windows desktop to mobile devices.

In mid-March, VMware announced Unity Touch, an app that allows users to view, open, run and manage Windows files and applications on their Android and iOS devices.

What exactly is Unity Touch This app takes your existing Windows desktop and makes it more manageable and easier to use on mobile devices. This feature is part of the Horizon View offering from VMware which allows administrators to virtualize the desktop environment, and users to access their desktop from anywhere.

Unity Touch takes Horizon View desktops and makes them easier to use on a touchscreen device. When it's introduced, you will be able to log in to your desktop and access your files and applications.

How does Unity Touch improve desktop access on mobile devices? One of the most important parts of the Windows environment is the Start menu. It's what the majority of users use to access their files and run applications. On mobile devices that connect to a virtual desktop, space is limited, so having a full start menu just doesn't cut it. This app essentially makes the Start menu an 'app drawer' on the left-hand side of your screen - think of any screen where you can select apps on your mobile device.

There's a little tab, located in the middle part of the left-hand side of the screen that you can press to bring up a list of files and apps that you can scroll through. This list also functions as a kind of launch center where you can switch between open programs, close them or even manage files.

Will my business find it useful? If you travel lots, or have to be away from your computer and don't want to carry a laptop with you, this could be a solution for you. You do need to have a VMware Horizon View Desktop version 5.2, the Horizon View Client 2.0 installed on your mobile device, as well as an Android, iPad or iPhone.

If you are interested in accessing your desktop from a mobile device, contact us today. We can work with you to develop a solution.

Virtualization of servers and desktops is a trend that’s being adopted by businesses of all sizes. One of the most popular types that companies employ is the virtualization of their desktop systems; placing the software and OS on the cloud, leading to a decreased need for powerful machines. VMware’s View allows companies to do just that, and it’s recently been updated.

For those who are unfamiliar with VMware, they’re a leading virtualization company, whose solutions allow companies to virtualize any aspect of their business. One of their most popular products is View.

What is View? VMware View, geared towards businesses, allows desktops to be virtualized. It essentially moves a user's desktop software, OS and essential programs, onto servers - in the cloud. Users use their physical system - mouse, keyboard, monitor and computer - to access their desktop via an Internet connection. If you’ve heard the term remote desktop, View is akin to that.

Updates to View View was recently updated to version 5.1 and with the update, three new features were introduced that could be useful to small businesses.

• Through a tool called Persona Management, users are now able to migrate their profile settings - desktop and application settings, user specific data and setups - from their physical desktop to their virtual desktop. If a user does not do a full virtual migration and keeps a physical copy of their desktop, any changes in settings will be synced automatically.
• There’s expanded coverage for USB peripherals like mice, printers and external hard drives. Before this update, if a user wanted to use a USB peripheral they had to have device drivers - software that allows the device to work with the OS - installed on their system. With the update, users don’t need to have the drivers installed, and should be able to use most USB devices. The drivers are installed on the administrator’s system instead.
• Administrators can now monitor and analyze individual desktop performance through the use of dashboards. These dashboards will allow them to identify and resolve potential issues. This service is called vCenter Operations Manager for View, and is available as an add-on.

In April 2011 VMware purchased SlideRocket, an online tool that lets users create and share presentations. By itself it’s a useful tool for users who give presentations, which let’s face it, is almost every business owner and manager. SlideRocket’s recent partnering with Google’s cloud storage app has provided users with an even more powerful way to share and collaborate on presentations.

Google has recently released its cloud storage and collaboration app, Google Drive. What does this have to do with SlideRocket? Well, SlideRocket’s full set of content authoring tools have been integrated into Google Drive. This means that users of SlideRocket can use Google Drive as another way to create, collaborate on, and store presentations.

Chuck Dietrich, Vice President of SlideRocket by VMware, commented, “Together with Google, VMware is helping individuals and businesses embrace new technologies for collaboration in the cloud era.” He went on to note that SlideRocket and Google Drive provide users with a great way to do just that.

If you use SlideRocket and would like to work with other users over Google Drive, simply log into both services with the same account and in Google Drive select Create and More followed by SlideRocket. Once you log in and integrate your accounts, you’ll have access to your presentations without having to log in to SlideRocket.

If you’d like to know more about how you can virtualize your business, or the different products offered by VMware, we’re ready to tell you more. Let’s talk virtualization.

For employees developing Java applications, there are a number of ways they can go about it. In the past, many had to first develop a framework, then develop the applications around it. This changed when VMWare released the Spring Framework. The Spring Framework was recently updated, read on to learn more.

VMWare recently announced that extensions to its Spring Framework are now compatible with Spring 3.1. This update ensures extensions like Spring Android, Integration, Security, Data and Mobile, etc. play nicely with the latest version of Spring, allowing for developers to more quickly develop business solutions and applications.

Who is VMWare? VMWare was founded in 1998 on the platform of providing virtualization solutions and software to companies of all sizes. The company creates virtualization software to work on Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X with a focus on shifting businesses onto the cloud, without disturbing existing operations or compromising security.

What is Spring Framework? Spring Framework is a process that allows developers to develop applications that can be integrated with Web services, security, messaging and databases that use Java. The Spring Framework builds a framework for developers to use, so they don’t have to develop one themselves. Therefore, it allows them to focus on creating and deploying Java applications in a number of different environments.

What do the Updates Bring? With Spring 3.1, there are a number of updates to the existing framework. The biggest accomplishment with this update is that all of Spring’s Frameworks are compatible with each other. This allows developers to not worry about developing workarounds, if one part of the framework is out of date. In short, it makes developers more efficient, while giving them the ability to develop Java based applications much faster.