mobile phone

SAN FRANCISCO - If the average person heard about virtualization in general, the idea, probably left little impression for something to do with running corporate data centers packed with computing equipment.

But in the era of virtualization, which directly affects ordinary people, too, on its way.

The company at the forefront of technology, is a subsidiary EMC VMware, drew 12,488 people to the VMworld conference here this week, and one topic of the show was the growing Push to move the technology for the server area. Initially, this means that PC, but the company has demonstrated its technology in mobile phones too.

What is virtualization? Simply put, it allows a single computer run multiple operating systems at the same time in compartments called virtual machines. Each instance of the operating system running on the virtualization layer, and not on existing computer hardware. Company is responsible for that underlying layer has a tremendous power in the computer industry. 

VMware has competition from Citrix, Red Hat, Microsoft and others, but now its Head Start, corporate alliances, and technology to give him a solid lead in the market. Most business comes from VMware server virtualization software that allows companies to replace the set of mostly idle machines on the one that runs at full speed, but the company is expanding into many new markets.

Employee-owned IT
Before he met his current success in the server market, VMware has its roots on the PC. Virtualization has proved useful, for example, for developers who want to quickly switch between different versions of the operating system to test its software and different versions of the browser for testing Web pages. VMware can also help people run Windows, Linux and Mac OS X on a single computer - but again, this is not basic needs.

But, as VMware sees it - and I think there is some justification for this belief - virtualization can become more widely used as a means to reduce the differences between people's own preferences and the computer needs of their employers.

In "Employee-owned IT" vision, virtualization can enable people to put a corporate-managed virtual machines on a personal computer. Corporate section will work only company-approved applications and can connect to the corporate network, personal half to carry out the chaos other programs that cause the corporate IT people to grind the teeth.

VMware has the technology - formerly known as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and now sports a more acceptable name of VMware View - which can also be inscribed in the idea. With her brain computer actually working on a central server, and from the local machine rights, serving as a mechanism for displaying the display and capture mouse clicks and keystrokes. Such corporate PCs employee can actually be placed on the corporate and piped through the network, that where an employee is.

View a demonstration of VMware signs of accelerating the schedule using DirectX Microsoft's 3D graphics and full-motion video - albeit with some jerkiness. Hardware Support in the new Intel and AMD processors also accelerates the performance of virtualization.

VMware View is the latest twist on the technology, called thin client computing. This approach has a solid niche in some large businesses, but which never caught on widely. In my opinion, though, the more problems arise from a completely different way of achieving the same goal centralized: cloud computing.

Cloud computing, in which applications run on Web browsers, and not originally on the PC, provides another way to provide access to corporate resources. He can not do everything, but it is gradually maturing as a way to run programs. And he has an advantage, as only a modern browser, but not the software to VMware.

Virtual Phone
At VMworld, Chief Technology Officer Stephen Herrod and Srinivas Krishnamurti, director of emerging markets, and also demonstrated virtualization to your mobile phone. In particular, they showed a mobile phone using Windows CE 6.0 operating system running Android by Google, too.

"Why do not virtualize the phone itself?" Herrod said. "This is really becoming more mobile PCs."

Why? VMware has two arguments.

First, the mobile phone version of the employee-owned IT vision, where the mobile phone can run corporate programs and access to corporate resources in one mode and use for personal tasks in another. VMware promotes two basic approaches - one in which the second operating system is running at the same time, and one in which the phone can switch between the two regimes.

Second programming. Coders face a minefield of complexity when it comes to writing software that can run on many phones. Visa, which has demonstrated a mobile application to check the credit card transaction works with mobile virtualization technologies, VMware, VMware expressed support for help in this area.

Variety "mobile phone manufacturers, infrastructure and telecommunications restrictions ... makes mobile space - while exciting - is very difficult," said Peter Ciurea, Global Head's Visa for product development. "Anything that opens the possibility of easy transport, we are very satisfied.

But even here, the idea of VMware face complications. Offering a simpler way for programmers does not mean the difficulty disappears - it simply means, VMware must shoulder the burden through its software. And virtualization is computing power.

Of course, the hardware has improved steadily. Demonstration Krishnamurti used the phone with 256 MB of memory, but he said in an interview with VMware technology works with 128MB, too.

VMware also showed Wyse Pocket Cloud software running on the iPhone combined with VMware View to provide view on your desktop Windows PC - but the demonstration showed that no more than panning around the working view.

Further expansion
So VMware won't have a simple time conquering clients, though it has a credible shot at it. Fortunately for us, she also received a lot of other irons in the fire.

Many of them are closer to the main business of server virtualization VMware. Gradually, the company is expanding from its initial phase of adoption, which were used virtualization to increase server efficiency, a more complex idea in which technology leads to more flexible data center.

For example, virtual machines can be moved off idle servers busy at peak periods of our activities, they can be moved back and downtime they can be shut down when demand weakens. Increasingly, that sort of optimization is an automated process governed by policies set up in advance.

VMware is also trying to stake a claim to another aspect of cloud computing, in which companies can shift the load from the virtualization foundation of their data center located in a remote data center operator to a third party. At VMworld, the company announced that AT & T, SAVVIS, Terremark, and Verizon Business offer everything that a cloud service. VMware also said that trying to standardize its cloud-Foundation Interface through a group of standards called the Distributed Management Task Force.

All this means, VMware is competing more than ever with Microsoft. This is not only because Microsoft offers virtualization software, but because Microsoft used to be one of the main foundations of software the computer industry.

VMware is a usurpation of the position of Microsoft, with many of its products. That relationship with those who have computers, accessories for computers, storage and networks, and they are building stronger relationships with corporate IT management personnel. Directions and management tools for unlikely at the present time is devoted to the background, but the VMware approach may make them more peripheral.

The company has a lot of work to make his full vision into reality. But he is working on the position of some strength