The VAR Guy

VMware is grabbing the consumerization-of-IT bull by the horns and wrestling it down to make tablets productive everywhere. The company has just released an overhaul of VMware View on the iPad and launched a version for Android. How can you make the most out of tablets and a VMware virtualization environment? Read on …

Here’s the rundown on the new feature set for VMware View on the iPad:

• Updated Multi-Tasking: Now users can swap between other iOS apps and VMware View without having to worry about VMware View disconnecting or logging off the virtualized Windows session.
• RSA Soft Token: VMware has taken a more serious approach to security be enabling RSA PIN authentication during log in.
• AirPlay Support: If you’ve got an AppleTV in the workplace, congratulations, you can now push your VMware View session to the big screen with AirPlay. Essentially, for the cost of an AppleTV and an iPad, you have a presentation system that is equal to many similar (and more expensive) offerings in the SMB marketplace. VMware has also created a special ‘presentation mode’ that allows the iPad to act as a trackpad and slide presenter while AirPlay is streaming the slide deck.

Switching gears to Android, VMware View is available for all Honeycomb tablets, including a version for the infamous Cisco Cius, which will be hitting Cisco’s AppHQ “soon,” according to VMware. I suspect it has something to do with the custom version of Android Cisco is running on the Cius, which is not a Honeycomb tablet.

Both the iOS and Android versions have been optimized for better performance with using VMware View 5 and 4.6 protocols. Anyone living in VMware environments should hop on. Both versions of the apps are completely free.

Important to note: VMware is making some offensive moves on the Android platform, especially against Citrix, which has had its Citrix Receiver App on Honeycomb tablets way before VMware pushed out its virtualization client for the platform. We’ll keep our eyes open as Citrix and VMware battle it out as consumerization of IT sweeps data centers everywhere.

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