Wyse, VMware team up on 'virtualized PCs'

Computerworld - Wyse Technology Inc. and VMware Inc. said today that they will work together to create virtualized PCs that can be hosted and managed on inexpensive Intel-based servers.

Corporate IT managers will be able to deploy virtual desktop environments to end users working on thin-client computers using Wyse’s existing technology for device and user management, while maintaining central management and control using VMware’s software, the companies said. This technology is available on all of Wyse’s platforms, including Windows XP Embedded, Windows CE, Wyse Thin OS and Linux.

San Jose-based Wyse and Palo Alto, Calif.-based VMware are already jointly marketing the products, Wyse Streaming Manager and VMware’s ESX Server, and plan further integration by the fourth quarter of this year.

Wyse will also join VMware’s Community Source program and cooperate with VMware on engineering, sales and marketing.

Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT in Hayward, Calif., called the solution “kinda cool” though not the first of its kind. Hewlett-Packard Co. several years ago began offering a solution involving many blade servers, each of which delivered a platform and applications to a single remote PC, he said.

Last October, IBM released its IBM Virtualized Hosted Client product, which uses technology from VMware and Citrix and standard Xeon-based blade servers. According to King, IBM has said it can deliver virtualized environments to between 12 and 14 thin-client computers per blade server.

According to Wyse, a two-way server can deliver applications and operating system to between 10 and 20 client computers, while a four-way server can handle between twice as many thin clients.

Although King said thin clients make “economic and efficiency sense,” opposition from office workers who don’t want to lose their desktop PCs has slowed adoption.