Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Virtualized servers can make IT management easier. But, what the heck is this VDI or the Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure! VMWare is a well know name in virtualization and they seem to have coined this term. Usual anticipation about this picture is that it is going to need a large data center, powerful servers, a lot of central storage, complex software and all that complications, must surely cost a bundle.

The following article by Keith Schultz take a look at virualization and finds that it is not necessarily so.The VDI is a way of organizing computing resources. With the data centers as we discussed above, all you need are thin clients at the user end to meet his computing needs. That reminds us, those of us who saw it, of the good old days when one powerful computer was connected to number of terminals. They are indeed similar. Now the central computer is replace by this data center organism of many servers, connected together with the necessary storage and software services.

He reviews three different products and finds that they do not have to cost you an arm and a leg. performance differed somewhat between the three products. read details in the original article.
InfoWorld review: Desktop virtualization made easy

"Time Bomb" in Software

Release and management thereafter of software products has always been difficult. As size and complexity of the products grow this becomes even more complex. But then there are more reasons for being careful too. The latest problem report comes from one of today's hot products the VMware. The CEO had to publicly apologize on the company website for an oversight that caused quite a few users a lot of stress.

Apparently developers had left some so called "time bombs" in the code, usually done to set a time limit on beta testing for example. These would be/should be cleaned up prior to release but obviously some did not get cleaned up even legitimate users could not install their systems that were paid for and all that.

Also goes to indicate how people in the testing and QA as well as the developers them selves need to be careful about such issues besides the regular bug management issues!