A quick follow-up to last week’s post Defining the post-PC Era. Here’s a video that the Microsoft Office team released showcasing its vision for the future.
Set aside the infographics that might one day be part of office and look at the way that actions flow seamlessly between phone, tablet, desktop (both “PC” and actual desktop) …
Creating an integrated workspace that is centered around the user’s needs and informed by the capabilities of the device in use.
In May when Microsoft offered up the release candidate for Windows Thin PC (TPC), I summarized my impressions by suggesting that while WinTPC
could be the preferred Windows platform for a significant number of enterprises … [it] has been encumbered with a licensing agreement that is absolutely hostile to adoption by anyone.
According to the WinTPC FAQ that was published along with the release candidate, you could only run applications that fell into the following categories:
Which meant that with the exception of Internet Explorer, which Microsoft would have us believe is not an application but a part of the operating system, all browsers are excluded from the list of permitted applications.
As of tomorrow, Microsoft is changing its volume licensing rules to allow customers to move existing servers to the clouds without paying extra for the privilege to do so. The changes dubbed “License Mobility” will allow customers with volume license deals through Software Assurance to move their software to a cloud services provider without paying a premium for the added flexibility this will bring.
On the face of it this sounds like a smart move for Microsoft.
Back in February when Microsoft announced that Windows 7 SP1 was being released to manufacture, it also announced Windows Thin PC (WinTPC) a new lightweight edition of Windows 7. I can’t say that I was impressed back then, and now that Microsoft has offered up its release candidate, I think that my first impressions were spot on.
At the time it was announced, Microsoft’s big claim for WinTPC was that it will “allow customers to re-purpose their existing PCs as thin clients”, which while true is hardly groundbreaking stuff. Thin client vendor Wyse has offered its own low cost solution to do the same for years.
Back in March I wrote about the then recently announced Windows Virtual Desktop Access (VDA) licensing program. At the time I was very supportive of the move as it went along way to address the shortcomings of the old Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) licensing scheme. However I did have one small concern about an anomaly in the proposed licensing scheme which I’ve reproduced here:
Admittedly there are still a few kinks to iron out with the VDA licensing model.
Yesterday’s other big news was that Microsoft’s investment in Calista is finally paying off. Windows Server 2008 R2 SP 1 will see the introduction of Calista technologies. Now renamed RemoteFX, Microsoft has taken Calista and remade it as both a new graphics engine to power RDP and a major incentive for customers to look to Hyper-V for as the foundation for any future desktop virtualization project.
The BrightTalk Next Generation Desktop Summit
VDI implementation makes a lot of sense for many organizations wanting to provide a secure and standard desktop for employees. But compared to other virtualization technologies, few organizations are deploying it. Why? Join this panel as they discuss this question, what VDI is lacking and what needs to happen in order for businesses to adopt it.
The Big BYOD Debate
Smartphones and tablets remain ever-prevalent, and the trend of employees using these devices for business purposes, whether sanctioned or unsanctioned, is on the rise. So Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, and the way enterprise IT departments should handle them, is a topic that generates a lot of discussion and controversy. 
Access Recording >>
Cisco Desktop Transformation
