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Microsoft Debuts Windows Thin PC (WinTPC) 1.0

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Microsoft recently announced a new update on its Windows Thin PC (WinTPC), which has reached its RTM milestone and will become generally available for download on July 1, 2011 for customers who use Microsoft Software Assurance.

WinTPC is a smaller footprint and locked down version of Windows 7.

Customers can install this Windows version on existing PCs to repurpose them as thin client devices which can be used to access VDI environments. This capability should help drive down the cost of VDI.

Microsoft used additional feedback gathered from customers during their Community Technology Preview (CTP) to add a few more features into the RTM.

If you didn’t enroll in the beta program but can’t wait until it becomes generally available to try it out, you can still register and download the beta software until July 1.

SAP, Microsoft Team Up To Make App Development And Cloud Management Easier

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Expanding their long-term partnership with a joint base of thousands of customers, SAP and Microsoft today announced their plans to improve integration between SAP software and Microsoft virtualization and cloud computing technologies.

These plans include innovations to people-centric applications development for SAP software as well as virtualization and cloud computing without disruption of customer IT landscapes.

The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE NOW, being held in Orlando, Florida, May 15-18, 2011.

The parties plan to make business processes from SAP software more easily consumed and extended by .NET developers, simplifying the overall application development process. This level of access will help redefine the SAP/Microsoft developer landscape with shorter development cycles, lower costs and openness into core applications.

Microsoft and SAP are also planning to provide integration between upcoming landscape management software from SAP, Microsoft System Center and Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V technology, bringing greater agility for cloud management and deployments.

AppSense Now A Microsoft Managed Partner

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AppSense, provider of user virtualization technology, has been elevated to a Managed Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Partner status by Microsoft. The company was previously a High Potential Partner since 2009.

As a Managed ISV Partner, AppSense will work closely with Microsoft to ensure its user virtualization platform enhances and extends the enterprise user management capabilities of Microsoft System Center, Windows Server and Windows Client.

Less than five percent of Microsoft ISV partners achieve Managed ISV Partner status, a category reserved for high-growth companies with significant joint revenue potential.

AppSense recently received a $70 million investment from Goldman Sachs for market expansion and new product development. Currently staffed with 300 employees, the company anticipates adding 150 new staff in 2011.

NComputing vSpace Now Plays Nice With Windows Multipoint Server 2011

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Desktop virtualization company NComputing has announced technology integration between its vSpace virtualization software and desktop devices, and Microsoft’s Windows Multipoint Server (WMS) 2011 multiuser operating system.

As a Microsoft Gold Partner, NComputing collaborated on early product testing, tuning and validation to ensure the best user experience possible.

Microsoft WMS 2011 brings Windows 7 to every student and productivity worker and powerful tools for administrators to simplify user setup and management, while NComputing reduces the cost of computing by allowing multiple people to simultaneously share a single computer.

NComputing offers support of Microsoft WMS 2011 in desktop virtualization environments including USB, PCI and Ethernet. As well as its L-Series (Ethernet), X-Series (PCI) and U-Series (USB) desktop virtualization devices, NComputing vertical market ‘In A Box’ solutions including Classroom In a Box for education markets and Office In A Box for SMB markets will support Microsoft WMS 2011.

NComputing says it has deployed 2.6 million virtual desktops in 140 countries.

Dell Invests $1 Billion In Cloud Data Centers, Service Enhancements

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Dell today announced it is increasing its investments in new technology solutions and services.

In its current fiscal year, Dell will invest $1 billion to deliver solutions, services and cloud-based delivery options to help customers capture the benefits from new compute and information delivery advancements.

Over the next 24 months, Dell will build multiple data centers around the world to provide its customers access to public and private cloud technologies and its IT outsourcing capabilities. These new data centers will allow customers to take advantage of Infrastructure-, Platform- and Virtual Desktop-as-a-Service offerings as well as IT outsourcing.

Dell will open 12 Global Solution Centers this year and is planning 10 more over the next 18 months, to better bring open, capable and affordable solutions to organizations around the world. This global network of solution centers will provide a backdrop for customers to learn about Dell’s industry-focused solutions and domain expertise.

Announced today, Dell vStart accelerates and simplifies virtualization adoption by providing an easy way to purchase a complete virtual infrastructure solution delivered ready to run physical and virtual workloads. With vStart, an entire functioning virtual infrastructure solution is delivered ready to run up to 100 or 200 virtual machines from a single management environment – including Intel Xeon-based Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell EqualLogic storage, Dell PowerConnect switches, deployment services, hypervisors, and essential virtualization management extensions.

Dell vStart currently supports VMWare and support for other hypervisors is planned in the coming quarters.

Also today, Dell and Microsoft announced a three-year strategic initiative to help customers quickly deploy and manage virtualization and private cloud technologies. Management solutions will be based on Dell’s Virtual Integrated System, Dell Advanced Infrastructure Manager and Microsoft System Center and will deliver improved integration across the physical, virtual and application layers. Virtualization solutions will be based on Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V.

Future jointly-engineered solutions based on Dell’s hardware and virtualization management technologies and Microsoft’s hypervisor and systems management technologies will simplify virtualization management, reduce costs and remove barriers to cloud adoption.

Target: We Run Applications For Our 1,755 Stores On Microsoft Virtualization Technologies

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Microsoft and Target have announced that the latter is running business-critical workloads for all its retail stores on 15,000 virtual machines using Microsoft virtualization and management technologies.

The second-largest discount retailer in the US, Target has virtualized inventory, point-of-sale, supply-chain management, asset protection, in-store digital media and more on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center.

Earlier this year, Target scaled its deployment of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V to every US store in its chain.

Applications, ranging from Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP1, SharePoint 2007 and Exchange 2007 to third-party, line-of-business software, can now be deployed and managed more quickly, with 8,650 fewer physical servers to maintain, power and refresh.

The retail giant has also implemented the Microsoft System Center management platform to manage and patch more than 300,000 endpoints, ranging from servers and PCs to mobile inventory devices and point-of-sale registers.