VMware launches mobile hypervisor

VMware has launched its Android-based mobile hypervisor aimed at establishing dedicated corporate environments on consumer devices.

The vendor today launched identity management engine Horizon, which it unveiled at the Mobile World Congress with partner LG in February.

Chief executive officer Paul Maritz described Horizon as part of a “move to a world where the desktop doesn’t belong to the device”.

Speaking at the VMworld conference in Las Vegas, he echoed Apple founder Steve Jobs’ description of a “post-PC world”, highlighting the challenge of integrating consumer IT into the traditional enterprise.

“In that post-PC world, that second layer of the desktop can’t belong to anyone,” Maritz said, noting that applications should be associated to people, instead of devices.

“What we’re seeing in the cloud era is not just hundreds of millions but billions of new users and devices now coming into play,” he said.

“Three years ago, over 95 percent of the devices connected to the Internet were personal computers. Three years from now that number will probably be less than 20 percent.”

Horizon gave users “two phones in one physical phone”, providing separate, virtual environments for work and home use.

It was based on VMware’s Mobile Virtualisation Platform and built for Android devices by LG and Samsung.

Company executives did not disclose details of VMware’s plans for other mobile operating systems.

In a keynote presentation on Tuesday, VMware’s chief technology officer Steve Herrod noted that consumer technology practices should shape enterprise IT.

“We want to be thinking about people, not devices; this is a fundamentally different way of thinking about IT,” he said.

VMware also updated its View virtual desktop software, launching View 5, as well as a Horizon Application Manager for software management.

Under “Project AppBlast”, the vendor also planned to deliver Windows-based applications via HTML5. No delivery dates or models were disclosed.

“The interesting thing about HTML5 is it is going to be the ubiquitous client,” Herrod explained. “Every device speaks HTML5 without a plug-in or anything else.”