Citrix VDI in a Box feature set grows

Citrix has announced a technology preview of Project Aruba which improves Citrix VDI-in-a-Box, with personal vDisk technology.

Project Aruba uses vDisks layering technology, obtained with the acquisition, to manage end-user applications and preferences allowing non persistent desktops both personalisation and flexibility.

Project Aruba provides the following key features:

Personalised virtual desktops:
Project Aruba eliminates the need to create separate static desktops to carry forward end-user customisation by coupling single-instance management with the ability to have individual user workspaces for their applications and data.

Single instance management:
This provides the ultimate flexibility for IT to maintain one master copy of desktop images while preserving the personalisation of user applications and data.

Support for Windows 2008 R2:
Project Aruba manages Windows 2008 R2, Windows 7 and Windows XP –based virtual desktops – enabling customers to select the ideal virtual desktop environment based on compatibility and costs.

Windows 8 support (Beta):
Project Aruba supports Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8 virtual desktops. All features of Windows 8 including the new Metro interface are fully supported. Since Windows 8 is not yet generally available, this feature is currently in Beta.

Simpler, more flexible:
Project Aruba makes management even simpler with added features such as access to multiple data stores for optimizing storage, and a touchless DTAgent that updates the desktop agent on all golden images and their desktop instances automatically when the VDI-in-a-Box software is upgraded.