VMware has been the dominant player in the desktop and server virtualization market with products like VMware Workstation, VMware Server and VMware ESX Server. And now, the virtualization giant has enhanced its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution with the release of VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2 -- yet another product from VMware that was created by integrating technology acquired from one of its ac VMware has been the dominant player in the desktop and server virtualization market with products like VMware Workstation, VMware Server and VMware ESX Server. And now, the virtualization giant has enhanced its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution with the release of VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2 — yet another product from VMware that was created by integrating technology acquired from one of its acquisitions, this time, Propero.VMware Desktop Manager 2 allows users to securely connect to their virtual desktops in the data center and helps bring back the thin client to IT environments. The new version enhanced the installation and manageability of the solution, making it available to the end user to install and configure it themselves, as opposed to its predecessor version which needed VMware professional services to help configure the product on-site.According to VMware, VMware VDI integrates VMware Infrastructure 3 and VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2 and provides an easy-to-manage desktop virtualization solution that takes advantage of virtualization technology used by more than 100,000 organizations. VMware VDI streamlines desktop management, reduces operational costs and provides business continuity capabilities that until now were available only for mission-critical server applications. “Our customers are deploying VMware desktop virtualization solutions in greater and greater numbers,” said Jeff Jennings, vice president of desktop products and solutions at VMware. “Our expanded VDI solution now provides these organizations with a complete and integrated end-to-end desktop virtualization solution. Customers can now manage virtual desktops with greater levels of operational efficiency, flexibility, and security.”The desktop virtualization market could easily pass the server virtualization market in the future. IDC predicts that desktop virtualization will become a $2 billion market by 2011. Although thus far, adoption rates of the technology can probably be safely categorized as being only fair. Expect that to change as the kinks continue to get worked out, and products like this continue to advance. Pricing for VMware VDI is based on a list price of $150 per concurrent user and is packaged into two bundled offerings: the VMware VDI Starter Edition and the VMware VDI Bundle 100 Pack. Both bundles include VMware Infrastructure Enterprise Edition for VDI (which consists of VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5) and the VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2. The VMware VDI Starter Edition, which enables 10 virtual desktops, has a list price of $1,500. The VMware VDI Bundle 100 Pack, which enables 100 virtual desktops, has a list price of $15,000. Customers may add on to either edition by purchasing additional licenses in increments of 10, based on the list price of $150 per concurrent user. Software Development