This month VMware accounced their new VDI solution called “View 3″

This new VDI solution is a replacement for VMware’s VDI solution - “VDM”. View 3 is a move to fulfill their “vClient” initiative, put forward at VMworld 2008. It is sold in a Enterprise and Premier edition and includes the following:

• VMware View Composer is a new product that uses Linked Clone technology to create virtual desktops rapidly from a master image while consuming up to 70 percent less storage space. Automated image preparation and provisioning take only seconds and are centrally controlled by View Manager. In addition, View Composer can reduce management costs by enabling IT to update thousands of individual virtual desktops by simply updating the master image with a patch or application update and then applying the changes to each desktop cloned from the master image. View Composer provides this one-to-many image updating while preserving user data, settings, and preferences so patching is seamless to end users.
• VMware ThinApp is bundled with VMware View 3 to enable simplified application packaging and deployment to a virtual desktop environment.  ThinApp and View Composer work together to provide streamlined virtual desktop image creation and updating.  ThinApp enables applications to run independently of the host operating system version or patch level. This simplifies updating and patching applications, and provides additional storage reduction for virtual desktops by centralizing and compressing applications. ThinApp’s unique architecture does not require an agent on the user’s desktop, a major advantage compared to other techniques for virtualization applications.
• Offline Desktop, an experimental feature, provides the flexibility to intelligently and securely move virtual desktops between the datacenter and a local laptop or desktop, increasing user productivity while providing secure mobility. Users can “check out” a virtual desktop onto an ordinary PC, such as a laptop, run the virtual desktop locally and then check it back in to the datacenter. Offline Desktop allows a user to keep using his virtual desktop when no network is available, or simply to take advantage of local resources for the best virtual desktop user experience available.
• Unified Access, a new feature of VMware View Manager 3, provides desktop administrators with a single management platform for multiple types of sessions. VMware View Manager 3 connects to desktop environments hosted on VMware Infrastructure, or user sessions running on Windows Terminal Servers or even physical PCs such as a blade PC.  Individuals have a single point of access to seamlessly connect to their desktop environment, while administrators have a single point of administration.
• Virtual Printing provides end users the ability to print to any local or network printer without installing specific printer drivers.  Virtual Printing technology provides compression for print jobs and auto detection of local printers from the client. This eliminates printer driver issues and the need for printer configuration. End users get high quality printing with enhanced performance across the WAN.\
• Multimedia Redirection improves the user experience with rich multimedia playback capabilities. The multimedia processing tasks are intelligently redirected from the server to the end user device where the multimedia stream is decoded, taking advantage of the local processing power.

You can read VMware’s official press release at- VMware Announces General Availability of VMware View 3, with Ground-Breaking Advances in Managing, Scaling and Personalizing Virtual Desktop Environments

And you can visit the View 3 product homepage at- VMware View

Also, read posts by these bloggers covering View 3-

• A New “View” of Virtual Desktop Computing | Virtual Insanity
• Virtually Dave » Welcome to the View from VMware’s perspective
• VMware releases their new VDI product, View 3. Here’s a 60-second overview - Brian Madden - BrianMadden.com