VMware shows off phone virtualisation

VMware has demonstrated its forthcoming virtualisation technology for phones, showing Microsoft's Windows CE and Google's Android running side-by-side on one handset for the first time, states vnunet.

Jerry Chen, director of enterprise desktop platforms and solutions at VMware, gave a live demonstration at the VMworld Europe 2009 conference in Cannes last week of the firm's mobile virtualisation platform MVP running on a Nokia N800 smartphone.

"I want to be the first to have a phone that can have both my work and phone personalities and keep them completely separate," he said.

Red Hat has announced an entire line-up of open source virtualisation tools, reports Tectonic.

Under pressure, VMware has unveiled plans to release portions of its software for free, but the battle for the virtualisation space is just starting to heat up and VMware looks to be facing ever-increasing threats that include Microsoft and Citrix and at least one Linux player.

The tools to be released by Red Hat include the Linux kernel-based KVM on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, two virtualisation management tools for desktops and servers, as well as a standalone hypervisor called Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation.

The move will not only position Red Hat strongly against major industry player VMware, but will also better position Red Hat against Microsoft, which also has a line of virtualisation tools.

Desktop virtualisation, with its promises of improved security, manageability and flexibility, may be on the verge of huge adoption, some experts are predicting, says Techworld.

But as with many new technologies, there is a catch. ROI is one of the main selling points, but desktop virtualisation requires significant upfront costs and it can easily take three or four years to realise financial rewards.

"I see huge interest right now, for many reasons," says Forrester analyst Natalie Lambert. "But the challenge is that desktop virtualisation is a very costly endeavour. I don't care what people tell you otherwise, they're wrong.”