Microsoft's head of marketing for Azure Prashant Ketkar, announced that Microsoft will be adding Remote Desktop Services and virtual machine support to Windows Azure. Without committing to a date Ketkar indicated that these new services were very high on the Azure team's list of priorities, expectations are that these could be available by the start of Q3 if not sooner.
Aside from pricing ($0.12 per hour) there's not much to say about this offering yet. It's nothing that you couldn't do before with Amazon EC2. But it's early days yet and between now and when the services launch it might offer something of real interest. Until then it does nothing more that encourage Amazon to sharpen its pencil and come up with some better pricing.
Update to my initial post
Microsoft have requested that that I make it clear that by extending Azure to support both RDP access and user developed virtual machines, they are not going to be providing any sort of DaaS offering themselves.
This does not mean that it isn't going to be possible to do this yourself; the core capability is certainly there, just that MS don't want to get into the DaaS business. Either way, it will be interesting to see how this turns out. I'd be very interested to see just how many IT organisations will now consider Azure for either their core desktop platform or as part of a business continuity solution.
Citrix released their latest XenDesktop single server scalability test results today; showing a dual socket Intel Xeon x5570 (Nehalem) server with 72GB RAM running 130 Windows XP VMs per host. This is a significant improvement on Citrix’s previously published results, and certainly enough to bring it back into line with results VMware previously published.
More important than the results though is the test methodology that Citrix has adopted this time around.
For the past year I have been trying to encourage desktop virtualization vendors to adopt a standard testing methodology for virtual desktop workloads and I am very happy to be able to say that it looks like Citrix has come into line with my way of thinking. Rather than relying on an in-house developed test, Citrix have adopted Login VSI 2.0 from Log•in Consultants as the core of their testing process. Login VSI is a specifically designed benchmark for server-based computing and desktop virtualization environments. You may know it better as part of Project Virtual Reality Check the joint project by Log•in Consultants and PQR. Project VRC is the only fully independent benchmark of desktop virtualization workloads running on diverse physical and virtual platforms. By establishing themselves as trustworthy independent subject matter experts, the Project VRC team has benefited not just their customers but a global audience of IT organizations who can take advantage of the research performed under the Project VRC banner. Even more importantly the breadth and quality of information presented through Project VRC is acting to improve the quality and credibility of all server hosted desktop virtualization vendor issued performance benchmarks.
Now that Citrix have seen the light, I hope that all server hosted desktop virtualization vendors will follow suit and adopt Login VSI as their testing benchmark. Anyone who doesn’t should not be surprised if their performance data is called into question.
After being completely underwhelmed by the iPad launch, it
has fallen to Citrix of all companies to renew my enthusiasm for mobile
devices. A little over two years after Chris Fleck (Citrix VP of Community and
Solutions Development) first introduced me to the idea of using a smart phone
as a laptop replacement, Citrix announced this morning the latest iteration of
its Nirvana Phone concept.
The first iteration of the Nirvana Phone took at its core
idea the notion that the then current generation of smart phones (think first
generation iPhone) were approaching the level of performance needed to run the
Citrix Receiver successfully. If that was the case then with the addition of a
Bluetooth mouse and keyboard and a HD video out connection it would be quite
possible for your phone to become your always connected mobile thin client. Of
course it didn't escape attention that if this idea took off it would most
likely result in Citrix selling a few more XenApp and XenDesktop licenses.
Two years later we are still waiting for the Nirvana Phone,
all of the individual parts are available all that we are lacking is for
someone to assemble them all in a single compelling package, and that is where
today's announcement starts. Citrix working together with OK Labs (who I
mentioned in my last post) have released a reference architecture document
describing a second generation Nirvana Phone that builds on the core concept
but updates it to take into account the latest developments in mobile
hypervisor capabilities.
I have to stress the word concept, Citrix is most definitely not in the mobile handset
business (although OK Labs most definitely is, albeit in a very specialized
area). Think of this more as a conversation starter than a clear statement of
direction of things to come from Citrix.
The Nirvana Phone concept extends Citrix’s vision for mobile
application delivery beyond the point I described it in my last post. Instead
of writing a separate Citrix Receiver for each mobile device operating system,
the Nirvana Phone has at its heart the OK Labs OKL4 Microvisor, with the Citrix
Receiver implemented as what is in effect a virtual appliance running directly
on the hypervisor. This brings with it two key advantages; firstly Citrix could
now, in theory anyway, provide a single Citrix Receiver for use on all phones
running the OK Labs Microvisor (and that's a quite staggering 500 million
devices). Secondly by running the Citrix Receiver in its own virtual machine it
is significantly more secure than it would be when running alongside many other
applications. The second point might not be off too much concern today, but as the
number of open ecosystem App stores such as Cydia and the Android Market increases
so does the risk of malware gaining a foothold on smart phones. At some point
corporate IT will have to wake up to this risk and a secure Citrix Receiver may
be just the thing they are looking for to marry the needs of security with the
convenience of mobile applications.
Anyway, here's a short video of Chris Fleck demonstrating
the Nirvana phone.
How cool is that.
The demo is is real, there's no trickery involved here. That phone is a standard smartphone, although perhaps only recognizable if you are outside the US. Even so, I'm afraid you can't go out buy a working Nirvana Phone today. While the hardware is off the shelf, the firmware has been hacked somewhat to install the Citrix Receiver.
What are the chances that we will see a Nirvana Phone for sale any time soon? Well, the OKL4 Microvisor is embedded in smartphones such as the HTC G1, G2, and the HTC Hero, the Motorola Droid and Cliq, the Palm Pre, and the Toshiba TG01OK . Most significantly the OKL4 Microvisor powers the world's only commercially-available fully-virtualized smartphone, the Motorola Evoke QA4. So the core technology is already operational in the field, and it becomes a matter of detail to get the Citrix Receiver integrated with a production platform - that and find a mobile wireless operator interested in offering it as a service.
I almost forgot, Citrix and OK Labs are hosting a joint Webinar on the Nirvana Phone on February 9th.
Anyone who hasn't been hiding under a rock for the last few
weeks won't have been able to avoid the brouhaha concerning the highly
anticipated launch of Apple's tablet. Not quite as exciting to some, but
certainly more real was Steve Ballmer's keynote at CES last week, where he
showed off Windows based tablets from HP, Archos and Pegatron. At the same time there has
been an explosion of announcements on Android tablets with manufacturers such as Archos (again), Compal,
Dell, HP (again), and Motorola, offering tablets ranging in size from 5 to 10 inches. While in the UK, T-Mobile has
announced its own monster 15 inch Vega tablet that will also run Android. If this
wasn't enough Intel is pushing Moblin their own Linux-based OS at Netbook
manufacturers and have just launched the beta of AppUp Center Intel's take on the single platform application
storefront. And let's not forget Walt Mossberg’s interview with Google's VP of Engineering Andy Rubin strongly hinting that Google has RIM in its sights by announcing plans for an enterprise version of the Nexus One smartphone complete with physical keyboard and longer battery life.
A couple of years ago enterprise IT might have seen all this as
an interesting diversion and little more. But now with the iPhone, and more
importantly the iTunes App Store, expectations on application delivery to the endpoint have changed. Enterprise users now expect to be able to access both personal and business apps where ever they are. So while many of these new devices are clearly aimed at the consumer market, it would be shortsighted not to expect some of them to see service as enterprise application delivery endpoints in the near future.
About 15 years ago, I was walking through the halls of Comdex in Las Vegas, explaining to my then new manager why I couldn’t deliver his latest project to budget. I’d been tasked with overseeing an end to end replacement of the entire network infrastructure from the desktop to the data center for four hospitals in Saudi Arabia.However, at that time we were facing a worldwide PC memory shortage, prices were climbing through the roof with no sign of them leveling off and we were in trouble.What we needed I said was some sort of multi-user Windows NT server that could use memory more efficiently than a PC could and use the existing PCs as X11 graphics terminals or something. As I was explaining this to him, I noticed that we were walking past a large stand plastered with signs that said “Citrix WinFrame” and “Wyse WinTerm”, and being a fairly bright lad I realized this might just be what I was talking about so I pointed him in the right direction and said “Rather like that”. We walked over to the stand, and the rest as they say is history.
