Last Friday Rachel Chalmers of the 451 Group wrote a nice piece capturing the excitement and opportunity for Neocleus’ upcoming beta  of our Client Management & Virtualization suite, code named “Mako”, which is built upon the 2nd generation Client Hypervisor.  She describes how our platform can reduce the cost and complexity of managing PCs in the Enterprise while providing a new level of security that has not been attainable with the “one-OS-per-computer” model in place with desktops and laptops today.  Now that VT-enabled desktops and laptops can be a reality, there is a new paradigm emerging – one that we’ve seen in the data center over the past few years – where single computers will have multiple OS instances running simultaneously.  The shift to now virtualize desktops and laptops will completely transform client computing.

However, this next generation of client computing will not completely negate or require ripping out of old solutions.  Rather, an evolving ecosystem of partners where new solutions complement existing ones will emerge.  For instance, within the configuration and management arena while a new class of capabilities will be needed to manage the OS containers, existing tools will still be required to run the applications that sit inside them.  The upcoming Neocleus ”Mako”  product for example is built to work in conjunction with the existing tools such as Microsoft SCCM, Avocent / Altiris, BigFix and others.  Our centralized management and virtualization platform is designed to provide “container” management of the VMs running on the target endpoints, but not to supplant the existing management platform on these machines. OS instances that run on Neocleus operate just like native OS instances to the Change & Configuration management tools.  As a result, patching the OS, adding applications, changing settings, etc. are implemented in the same manner as without virtualization – it is just easier and more efficient with Neocleus. 

The Neocleus platform also complements VDI based solutions.  Using Neocleus, users can “check out” a VM or image from the VDI data center to take on the road with them, then “check it back in” when reconnected.  With Neocleus organizations realize increased security, centralized management and flexibility on the client while protecting and extending the investment in VDI.