VMware Preps ACE 2 Enterprise For Release

ACE 2 Enterprise Edition, which moved into public beta testing on Monday, will be shipped in the second quarter, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based virtualization software company said. The beta supports Windows and Linux desktops.

ACE, announced in January 2005, allows administrators and partners to create a full-featured desktop, with the operating system, applications and data in a virtual machine that can be deployed on any machine.

The intent is to enable companies to easily provision secure, preconfigured, standard PC desktops to remote workers, telecommuters, offshore developers and contractors, VMware said.

ACE 2 brings improvements in mobility and management. A new mobility feature called Pocket ACE, for instance, allows the deployment of a fully featured desktop to portable devices such as a USB flash drive, a portable hard drive or an iPod.

In addition, ACE 2 integrates a new ACE Management Server that allows IT administrators or solution providers to track, manage and apply policies to ACE desktops.

The offering is VMware's first virtual appliance and allows for centralized policy management of desktop virtual machines from a single management interface, including the creation of device and network access configurations and the activation or deactivation of ACE clients at any time, VMware said.

Pricing will be anounced when the product ships in the second quarter, according to VMware.