Virtualization platforms
Bronze Award:
ACE 2
VMware ACE 2 promises to make IT magic by bringing chaos of corporate desktop management under control, earning it the bronze in virtualization platforms.
ACE (Assured Computing Environment) allows IT administrators to bundle a desktop operating system and its applications into a virtual machine (VM) that can be created once and deployed many times.
"ACE is the best solution for users with untrusted systems, which are systems where users have administrative rights and thus can install software, as is common with remote/mobile users," a judge said. "ACE's policy-based management is outstanding." A key new feature in ACE 2 is Pocket ACE, which one judge dubbed "truly innovative." Pocket ACE provides the ability to store a VM on portable USB storage devices. Other noteworthy features in ACE 2 are significantly improved hardware support and performance, a universal print driver and management features such as full VM encryption, copy protection and expiration dates, judges said. "I thought ACE 1 was a very good product," said one of our judges. "ACE 2 is even better." VMware bundles ACE 2 with VMware Workstation 6 and support. The basic VMware ACE 2 Starter Kit with one-year 24/7 support starts at $1,297 for 10 ACE client licenses. This option allows for addition of up to 50 individual licenses for ACE clients.