Use your iPad as a Virtual Desktop ?

[TeamDesktop]

iPad as a Virtual Desktop ?
by Jan Brodkin

If you haven't heard yet, Apple released a new device this past weekend called the iPad. It's basically a computer and an iPhone rolled into one, but, like, 8 billion times better.

At least, that's what people seem to think. So, if you're an IT pro you can probably expect users to be clamoring for ways to use the new, totally awesome device at work.

Luckily, there's a new technology that can turn just about any user device into a fully functioning desktop without completely sacrificing IT security rules -- it's called desktop virtualization. Citrix and Wyse Technology have already released software applications that extend Windows desktops to the Apple iPad.

"I'm convinced it's going to be a really big hit in the enterprise," says Chris Fleck, vice president of community and solutions development at Citrix. "We see a big demand from any kind of mobile worker, and teleworkers. We see salespeople adopting it quickly because it means they can travel lighter. They can do presentations from the iPad."

But virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and other types of desktop virtualization are not yet mainstream, and businesses may rightfully wonder if their virtualization efforts should focus on thin clients instead, which are much less expensive than the iPad and have already been proven in large customer deployments.

Most likely, employees who want to use the iPad for business will have to buy their own, says Burton Group analyst Chris Wolf.

"I haven't talked to a client yet whose internal organization is willing to fund the iPad as a mobile device," Wolf says. "Right now, the techies in the organization are willing to buy their own. Sure, maybe IT will provide connectivity," but the iPad is not yet a device for strategic deployments of virtual desktops throughout an enterprise.

Citrix's new marketing campaign claims the iPad is "open for business," and the company released two pieces of software to the iPad App Store that enable business use of the consumer-focused device. Citrix Receiver lets iPad users access corporate applications and documents, while Citrix GoToMeeting offers Web conferencing capabilities.

With Citrix Receiver, customers can connect iPads to existing implementations of Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop to deliver Windows applications and desktops to the iPad. Security is strong, Fleck says, because applications are running in the data center rather than on the endpoint itself.

Wyse Technology, which sells thin clients, also released http://www.wyse.com/about/news/pr/2010/0402_iPad.asp an iPad app that provides access to Windows-based virtual PCs and supports multiple virtualization technologies, including VMware View and Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol.

VMware hasn't made any iPad announcements, and one VMware employee has expressed skepticism about using the iPad as a virtual desktop client. VMware application performance engineer Todd Muirhead wrote in January that the iPad seems like a good device for reading books and checking out Facebook, but not for getting a lot of work done on a desktop.

Citrix says the iPad will be ideal for healthcare workers, salespeople, insurance and real estate agents, and other types of professionals, and has more potential in businesses than the iPhone. But Fleck acknowledges that most early deployments will rely on employees buying their own devices.
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"I believe, at least initially, it's going to be a bring-your-own scenario. The iPad will be the door opener for the bring-your-own model," he says.

While enterprises may be reluctant to buy iPads for workers, the device itself should work well with virtual desktop technology, Wolf says. Word processing, PowerPoint presentations and other types of applications should work well with Apple's latest computer.

"It's an interesting mobile client device," Wolf says. "It certainly could be used to access virtual desktops. But it could also be used for software-as-a-service applications."

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[TeamDesktop]

Wyse's PocketCloud Turns iPad Into A Virtual Windows 7 PC
by Joseph Kovar

Wyse Technology on Friday said it is helping make Apple (NSDQ:AAPL)'s iPad a business computing device with a new version of its PocketCloud application for turning smart devices into fully functioning Windows 7-based thin clients.

Wyse, a San Jose, Calif.-based developer of thin-client technology, unveiled PocketCloud for iPad, a $30 app downloadable from the Apple AppStore that allows users to run their Windows 7 environments as a virtual PC with all the expected capabilities, including the ability to run Adobe Flash-based applications.

PocketCloud was originally released in September at VMworld for the iPhone, and more than 10,000 copies have been downloaded so far, said Tarkan Maner, president and CEO of Wyse.

The iPad version of PocketCloud is one of the first business applications certified by Apple for the iPad, Maner said.

"The iPad is consumer-friendly," he said. "We have the first app to take it to business, and let the iPad connect to private and public clouds."

PocketCloud supports VMware View 7 and Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)'s RDP7 virtual desktop environments, and support for Citrix (NSDQ:CTXS) XenDesktop environments will come in the near future, Maner said.

Customers can use PocketCloud to download their Windows 7 desktop environment on the iPad, giving them access to their normal applications, including Adobe (NSDQ:ADBE) Flash-based applications.

"When you go into the Windows 7 environment, you're not in the embedded iPad system format any more," Maner said. "You're in a virtual environment, running Windows 7, and you can run all your apps."

That capability opens a lot of opportunities for solution providers looking to take advantage of the iPad's user-friendly design and multitouch screen to work with business customers, Maner said. While PocketCloud can be used by anyone to run a Windows 7 environment, it does require some technical proficiency to use it.

Maner cited a couple of business uses for the iPad with PocketCloud.

For instance, in hospitals where HIPAA regulations prohibit certain users from working with devices that have spinning hard drives, the iPad with its flash memory can now run the hospital's existing applications, Maner said.

For mobile workers, PocketCloud on an iPad allows them to access their applications remotely or do monitoring and management of their business servers from anywhere just as if they were using a notebook PC -- while giving up none of the iPad's user-friendly features, he said.

"The iPhone and iPad offer great user experience, but Apple is still going after the consumer first," he said. "But the enterprise is a bigger market. We bring Apple as a friend into the enterprise."

Existing customers of PocketCloud for the iPhone can download the iPad version at no cost.

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