VMware Acquires VDI Software Maker RTO
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The RTO team of 12 employees will be incorporated immediately into VMware and become part of the company's desktop business unit. VMware and RTO had been in a partnership since last fall, when VMware announced at VMworld that it would integrate RTO's Virtual Profiles management tool into its VMware View platform.
VMware, which continues to expand its market reach outside of the server
virtualization sector that it currently dominates, said in a blog
post on its Website Feb. 23 that it has acquired software management
toolmaker RTO Software.
Financial details were not disclosed.
The RTO team of 12 employees, based in Alpharetta,
Ga., will be incorporated immediately into
VMware and become part of the company's desktop business unit.
VMware and RTO had been in a partnership since last fall, when VMware announced
at VMworld that it had integrated RTO's Virtual Profiles management tool into
its VMware View platform.
"This was and is a strategically important technology for VMware and is
destined to become a critical component of the View solution, providing the
foundation for robust persona management," Scott Davis, VMware's chief technology
officer for the Desktop Business Unit, wrote.
In fact, RTO's software apparently is "critical enough" that VMware
simply decided to buy the company, the post said.
"One of those critical parts [of a virtual desktop] is the user persona, a
user's profile, data files and settings," Davis
wrote. "Clean, efficient user persona virtualization is vital to our
vision, and that is precisely what RTO's industry-leading Virtual Profiles will
deliver for VMware View."
Real-Time File Availability in Multiple Sessions
Virtual Profiles protects files in use and enables multiple views of the same
file. A feature called Live Sync updates profiles in real time when a user is
running one or more work sessions. For example, when a user creates a new
document in one VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) session, it will
automatically be made available in other active sessions.
In addition, Virtual Profiles enables users to download files from the Web or
elsewhere to their laptop for offline access. Data protection comes in when a
user's network connection is dropped; Virtual Profiles automatically saves any
modified user profile data locally, RTO said.
"With persona management, end-user specific information such as user data
files, settings and application access is separated from the desktop image and
centrally stored, enabling increased flexible access, greater portability
and seamless file management and backup," Davis
wrote.
VMware is planning to ship an updated version of VMware View that contains
integrated support for Virtual Profiles in mid-2010, Davis
wrote.
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
