Quest releases vWorkspace 7.5 !

Today Quest Software has officially released vWorkspace version 7.5! I personally had the honor to test-drive the beta and RC releases. I’m really excited about version 7.5, it contains a great set of new features and changes! In this blog post, I’ll discuss some of the features introduced in the new release.

First, let’s quickly highlight the key features:

“…Lowest Cost Desktop Virtualization using Hyper-V
vWorkspace 7.5 introduces direct support for Microsoft Hyper-V, including free Hyper-V Server. This deep integration provides full virtual desktop lifecycle management and lets you take full advantage of Hyper-V functions such as Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX. And by allowing seamless use of local storage (DAS) and eliminating the need for expensive SAN storage, vWorkspace 7.5 provides additional cost-savings for desktop virtualization…”

“…Huge Scalability and Speed Improvements for Virtual Desktops
vWorkspace 7.5 introduces the Hyper-V Catalyst Components to deliver breakthrough scalability improvements for virtual desktops hosted on this Microsoft platform. Two key components are HyperCache and HyperDeploy which dramatically improve the density of Hyper-V. In addition, these components allow you to provision a fully functional virtual desktop every four seconds on commodity hardware, right out of the box…”

“…The Power and Simplicity of Desktop Clouds for SMBs and EnterprisesvWorkspace 7.5 now comes with Desktop Clouds that make desktop virtualization even easier. Desktop Clouds deliver the best possible performance of virtual desktops with advanced load balancing schemes. Plus, they allow you to add capacity in seconds for unparalleled elasticity. Maintenance of desktops in a vWorkspace Desktop Cloud is also fast and easy; you can update hundreds or thousands of desktops in minutes. All you need to set up a Desktop Cloud is Microsoft Hyper-V (free)…”

Furthermore:

“…Two-Factor Authentication for all vWorkspace Connectors – Adds an extra layer of security by leveraging two-factor authentication at the broker…”

Moving the two-factor authentication from Web Access to the Broker is a great move! It results in being able to also use two-factor authentication with the vWorkspace client. So in scenarios where you needed two-factor authentication and could not use (or did not want to use) Web Access you can now also use the vWorkspace client with two-factor! It also solves an issue that I posted on the Quest Forum a while ago; http://communities.quest.com/message/50617

“…New vWorkspace Web Access – Provides greater performance and scalability, is integrated with the vWorkspace Management Console, and offers a sleek new look…”

The configuration of Web Access is now fully integrated in the vWorkspace console, which works much better than the previous separate admin webpage you had to use. In addition, the look & feel of the Web Access site itself has greatly improved!

“…Advanced Targets – Allows administrators to assign vWorkspace applications, desktops, and other resources in a context-aware fashion with designations such as “two-factor authenticated” or “trusted entry point.”…”

This is great! The way it has been set up reminds me of Microsoft’s Item Level Targeting inside Group Policy Preferences. It works really well and introduces a lot of flexibility.

General info about the release:
http://www.quest.com/vworkspace/new-release.aspx

The whitepaper:
http://www.quest.com/whitepaper/desktop-virtualization-a-cost-and-performance-comparison816379.aspx

The datasheet:
http://www.quest.com/Quest_Site_Assets/PDF/_DSV-vWorkspace2011-US-EH_2.pdf