VMware, Intel Remotely Manage Secure Virtual Desktops

VMware announced Feb. 24 at its VMware Europe event that it will expand the capabilities of its desktop virtualization platform by teaming with Intel’s vPro remote access and management technology, giving solution providers more flexibility to manage virtualized desktop environments remotely, and adding increased security capabilities.

VMware’s new desktop CVP (client virtualization platform) hypervisor is already optimized for Intel’s Core 2 and Centrino 2 processors with Intel vPro technology, says Jerry Chen, senior director of desktop virtualization at VMware.

“VMware CVP strengthens our portfolio of desktop products and helps us deliver on our vision of the universal desktop–a desktop that follows you across any device, is secure, cost-effective and easy to manage,” said Jocelyn Goldfein, vice president and general manager, desktop business unit, VMware, in a statement.

The goal, says Chen, is to “virtualize to the user, not to a specific device.” VMware’s CVP and VMware View suite of virtualization products allows solution providers to deliver virtualized desktop environments that incorporate any device–laptops, desktops and mobile devices, says Chen.

While VMware’s CVP already includes centralized management capabilities via the VMware View suite of desktop virtualization products, the collaboration with Intel will beef up security capabilities and also allow solution providers to harness vPro’s remote administration capabilities, says Chen. Solution providers can then centrally administer data and manage and secure data if a user’s PC is off, or in the event of a hardware or operating system failure.

“This collaboration with Intel vPro is a major extension of our desktop virtualization vision,” says Chen. “Solution providers said their customers wanted one single platform and view to manage all their applications, laptops, desktops and servers from one location, and now we can do that,” he says.

Chen says that the collaboration will extend to both vendors’ solution provider partners having access to the solution, and that Intel and VMware will also collaborate on new product engineering and development, as well as marketing and sales activities.

While VMware’s hypervisors will ultimately be managed by the VMware View suite, Chen says the integration with Intel vPro offers a number of benefits, including advanced security and remote management capabilities.

“Intel’s vPro includes cutting-edge security and remote management capabilities that we will integrate and leverage to make our own hypervisors better,” Chen says.

Intel vPro technology allows solution providers and IT administrators to perform remote maintenance on any device inside or outside customers’ firewalls. This helps administrators to quickly identify and contain more security threats, remotely maintain PCs virtually any time, take more accurate hardware and software inventories, quickly resolve software and operating system problems, and accurately diagnose hardware problems from a centralized location, says Chen.

“This allows solution providers to fix problems from anywhere at any time,” says Chen. “It’s much more cost-effective and less time-consuming than having an administrator physically going to client sites to diagnose and solve problems,” he says.