Working with
Intel
Citrix is developing a "bare metal" hypervisor for client
PCs.
Most hypervisors for the client today are "Type 2", which are installed
on a PC's host OS. A bare metal hypervisor is installed with the firmware
beneath the OS, directly on the computer's "bare metal."
If the new
hypervisor works, and Citrix is working with Intel to make sure it does, then it
will help the use of desktop virtualisation by overcoming some of the
technology's shortcomings.
It should be available in the second half of the
year with the first release of a new product code-named Project Independence,
which Citrix says will make it easier to create and centrally manage virtual
desktop images for PCs used in the workplace.
A bare metal hypervisor runs
separately of the client OS and this provides better security and performance
for end users. Applications don't need to be stored on a server but can be
bought down to the client level.
These are the sorts of problems which have
kept client virtualisation solutions and usage models from being broadly adopted
in the past.