Cameron Sturdevant

When business workloads run on the same hardware that also supports personal-use applications, IT needs to intervene to protect the business. One method of separation that I’ve been exploring lately is the use of desktop virtual machines and centrally managed virtual desktop infrastructure. Virtual desktop products are one of the best ways to keep work […]

The NxTop platform uses open-source, bare metal hypervisor technology on desktop and laptop systems to implement virtual Windows-based user systems. The effect of hosting the virtual machine locally enables NxTop users to work untethered to the data center. While the NxTop platform, which consists of a variety of server and user components, is easy to […]

The Microsoft Windows InTune service is a compelling PC management offering for modest-size organizations that want endpoint protection, configuration management and operating system upgrades without the server infrastructure usually associated with these capabilities. Microsoft doesn’t recommend Windows InTune for shops that are already heavy users of Microsoft’s Group Policy for PC management, and the hosted […]

Three-dimensional graphics, USB redirection, reduced network bandwidth when working with graphics-rich applications, and more flexible memory usage are all included in the first service pack for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2. The muscular Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 is of special interest to IT desktop managers with strategic, high-performance desktop-virtualization projects on the […]

I feel spread out at work. Like many IT knowledge workers, I carry a mobile phone and a tablet, and I have a laptop that uses a desktop hypervisor, thus making the laptop at least two or three virtual machines. Unlike most, I also use a VDI (virtual-desktop-infrastructure) session a fair number of times in […]

VirtualBox 4 got a cleaned-up user interface, expanded virtual-machine configuration support and an internal reorganization in order to carry on the battle with VMware Workstation and Citrix XenDesktop. In the second release since Oracle acquired Sun, VirtualBox gained support for OVA (Open Virtualization Appliance), which is a single, compressed file of all the elements needed […]

The non-disclosure on Microsoft’s Windows InTune PC management offering lifted this morning (3/23/2011). Basically, InTune is a combination of cloud services and Windows software that is designed to help IT managers keep PCs in shape for end users. Isn’t that a long sought after goal? Between “everyone runs as admin” to ubiquitous Internet access to […]

The VMware vSphere Client for iPad is disappointing. Although the slick Apple iPad interface shows the promise of power, the vSphere Client for iPad will need to bulk up on the information that IT administrators need before the iPad application will be anything more than eye candy. Missing from this first release are alarms, the […]

Hotspot-enabled smartphones and mobile hotspot devices that enable WiFi connectivity to the Internet via carrier cellular networks are a boon to mobile workers and a bane to IT managers unless adequate controls for appropriate use are implemented. Read my full analysis at eweek.com.

WinMagic has teamed up with Lenovo to provide full-disk encryption management. Mobile users who carry sensitive data on laptop hard drives will benefit from the protection afforded by SecureDoc while IT managers gain the upper hand in managing security for “data at rest.” Read my full review at eweek.com.

VMware View Client for iPad lets mobile workers use the Apple hardware they love while gaining access to the Microsoft Windows desktop applications that they need. Read my full review at eweek.com.

The terrible loss of life and physical disruption of basic services in the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan should put disaster-recovery planning top of mind. If your organization lacks a plan, start drafting one today. If you have one, take if off the shelf and add those updates you’ve been meaning […]