MokaFive Launches BareMetal Hypervisor for Multitude of Devices

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.