Wyse Technology joined the recent migration of thin clients to virtualization technology by announcing support for VMware technology. All Wyse thin clients running Linux, Windows XP, and Wyse Thin OS will now ship with support for VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2, says the company.

Desktop Manager 2 is based on VMware's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Like other virtualization technologies, VDI divides the host's physical resources — memory, storage, processor cycles, etc — into multiple virtual machines (VMs). With VMWare's VDI technology, the VMs on a server host are remotely accessible via the network (see figure below), with thin clients providing the user interface. This approach results in thin clients that work more like full desktop PCs, the theory goes, while still offering some of the administration advantages of thin clients, such as centralized application installation, upgrades, and patches, better support for unattended backups, greater resource utilization, and lower electricity usage.

VMWare VDI typical use
(Source: VMware)

VMware Desktop Manager 2 allows users of Wyse thin clients, such as the Linux-based V50 thin client, shown at top and below, to securely connect to their virtual desktops in the data center, says Wyse. It also enables IT personnel to more easily perform desktop maintenance while making thin clients a more viable alternative to PCs, says the company.

Previously, Wyse had participated in the VMware Community Source program, and a few months ago announced that it was shipping multimedia capabilities for thin clients running VMware VDI. What's new is that Wyse is actively supporting the software right out of the box, says the company, including providing free first-day support for customers. Additionally, Wyse's multimedia software is now being integrated into VMware ESX Server, it said.

Last year, Wyse competitors Neoware and then Igel announced VMware VDI support for their Linux-compatible thin clients.

Stated Ricardo Antuna, VP of Business Development for Wyse, “This announcement helps accelerate the shift away from desktop PCs to green, efficient and more flexible thin clients in a virtualized desktop environment.”

Availability

The VMware VDI integration appears to be available immediately. More information on the Wyse VMWare VDI integration is available here.

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