VMware has announced the public beta of VMware ACE 2 Enterprise edition. The product is being described by the company as a breakthrough product that enables IT desktop managers to create a standard PC environment including operating system, data and applications. Ansd then wrap it with IT policies to protect the contents, package it into a virtual machine and then deploy it to any managed or unmanaged PC endpoi VMware has announced the public beta of VMware ACE 2 Enterprise edition. The product is being described by the company as a breakthrough product that enables IT desktop managers to create a standard PC environment including operating system, data and applications. Ansd then wrap it with IT policies to protect the contents, package it into a virtual machine and then deploy it to any managed or unmanaged PC endpoint.VMware ACE 2 Enterprise edition public beta includes a new desktop mobility feature, Pocket ACE, which enables deployment of a full-featured desktop virtual machine to a portable media device such as a USB flash drive, portable hard drive or Apple iPod. End users can load a secure desktop onto the media device, plug it into a licensed PC or laptop and access the desktop from nearly anywhere with network connectivity. The product also features the newly introduced VMware ACE Management Server, which allows IT administrators to centrally track and manage thousands of VMware ACE desktops and apply standard policies to them from a single console. As the first production-ready VMware virtual appliance, the VMware ACE Management Server is available pre-installed, pre-configured and ready to deploy. In addition, VMware ACE 2 Enterprise edition public beta utilizes the latest VMware virtualization platform, enabling IT administrators to use VMware Workstation 6 to create and securely package VMware ACE virtual machines for deployment to end users who then can run them on any licensed PC or laptop. VMware ACE 2 Enterprise edition public beta benefits include: Streamlined enterprise desktop management. Supporting users on unmanaged hardware can require IT administrators to create, test, provision and migrate a separate desktop image for every flavor of PC hardware being supported. Administrators now can create standard desktop images using VMware Workstation 6, then deploy and manage them with the VMware ACE Management Server. This results in the ability to easily manage numerous virtual machines while reducing the number of images to create and enabling faster desktop deployments. Simplified policy control. A single management interface provides centralized policy management of desktop virtual machines deployed on existing PCs. The VMware ACE Management Server supports dynamic updates of IT policies and manages virtual machine expiration dates, device and network access configurations and activation or deactivation of VMware ACE clients at any time. Isolated environments. IT administrators can create secure and isolated VMware ACE desktop environments for use on existing PCs that are separate from the user’s personal settings. This allows administrators to manage and control the VMware ACE desktop without infringing on the user’s freedom to utilize PC features that might be restricted within the VMware ACE environment. Easy backup and recovery. IT administrators can take snapshots of stable virtual machine configurations and roll back to the previous state quickly and easily. Expanded operating system support. In addition to support for Windows Vista, VMware ACE 2 Enterprise edition public beta offers Linux host operating system support for Mandriva, Novell, Red Hat and Ubuntu. Increased performance and memory support. VMware ACE 2 Enterprise edition public beta leverages the latest virtualization platform from VMware, including support for USB 2.0, and supports virtual machines of up to 8 GB in size. The product is currently in public beta for Linux and Windows and is available for download, here. The product is expected around the second quarter of 2007. Software Development