MokaFive BareMetal is a client hypervisor that installs directly onto the hard drive of a PC, Mac or tablet and needs only 2GB of RAM and a 64-bit compatible CPU.
Virtual desktop
infrastructure provider
MokaFive, which
serves up its flavor of VDI on the client and supplies a server-based corporate
desktop through a separate window, on May 25 launched a new bare-metal
hypervisor for its MokaFive Suite 3.0.
MokaFive BareMetal is a
client hypervisor that installs directly onto the hard drive of a PC, Mac or
tablet and needs only 2GB of RAM and a 64-bit compatible CPU. It is designed
for enterprises looking for one VDI product that can run on a multitude of
devices; most virtual desktop packages are aimed at a single type of PC.
In the MokaFive scheme, if
the virtual desktop window is cut off by a transmission problem or some other
issue, the file the user is working on continues unabated on the local machine.
When the connection to the virtual desktop is restored, the file is updated on
the central server, so no work is lost.
With more and more large
enterprises now supplying employees with iPads and other types of tablets, IT
managers need to keep in mind versatility when they're looking at virtual
desktop deployments.
"This is a brand-new
product for us: BMP, Bare Metal Product," MokaFive CEO Dale Fuller told
eWEEK. "With this, MokaFive can now
truly claim that it provides the first complete enterprise desktop-management
solution in the industry."
In contrast, most other VDI
packages basically turn a computer into a dumb terminal with no localized
control. Everything that happens on the PC stays in the data center. Files
cannot be saved on the local machine, no matter what type it is.
Thus, straight VDI users are
beholden to the state of network connectivity. If the system goes down, they're
out of business.
The VDI sector is
progressing on this front, however. Like MokaFive, Citrix's XenClient
bare-metal hypervisor (for PCs only), Kaviza (
bought
this week by Citrix) and VMware's new version of View, operate in a similar
manner, although they're not as versatile.
MokaFive, which has been
trying to put the VDI pieces together at the right time and right place for six
years, now may finally be at the correct convergence coordinates. The company,
based in Redwood City, Calif., is taking the concept of "local management,
remote execution" to a new level.
"We take the simple idea
of, 'How do we allow the end user to use any device he or she wants, and at the
same time protect the whole corporation-with no changes, no adds or anything,'"
Fuller said. "The client-side MokaFive v3.0 lets me have, as a
corporation, my entire container of my image, safe and secure, controlled by
me, from the cloud; however, my user gets to execute it locally.
"And he or she gets to
run it on a Mac, if they want to. Or a Windows machine, or a Linux machine.
That becomes the interesting thing."
The MokaFive BareMetal VDI
is available now, Fuller said.
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Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz
