White Paper: The All New 2010 Intel® Core™ vPro™ Processor Family: Intelligence that Adapts to Your Needs

OS and application streaming: the OS and applications are not installed locally. Instead, the OS and applications are streamed to the PC across the network. Critical application data can be stored at the data center, traditional problems with OS and/or application corrup- tion are remediated by simply re-streaming the “gold” software image. Security, patching, and other IT services are also simplified, since they are performed only on the software image at the data center.

Application streaming: the OS is installed locally, but the applica- tions are streamed from the datacenter to the user on-demand. Data can be stored locally or at the data center, based on IT policy. Streaming only the applications reduces the network load, as opposed to streaming both the OS and applications. Also, applications can

be cached for off-network use on laptops. The terms “application streaming” and “application virtualization” are sometimes used inter- changeably, but they are different. Streaming is the technique

to deliver applications over the network.

 

Virtual machine

 

Streaming

Data storage

 

policy management

 

management

and management

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Managed Virtual Container

 

 

 

 

 

Microsoft Windows XP*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Streamed applications

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personal data

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Virtual private

 

Corporate data

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Network

 

 

 

 

 

Consumer applications

 

 

IT security and management layer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Consumer security layer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Microsoft Windows*

BIOS/EFI supporting

Intel® vPro™ Technology with Intel® Virtualization Technology

PCs with Intel® vPro™ Technology

Application virtualization is a technology that abstracts the application from the OS. Virtualized applications have full access to OS resources, but do not install themselves in the OS registry or system files. This can reduce many of the management issues and application conflicts that result from traditional installation. PCs with a new Intel Core vPro processor support both OS streaming and application streaming. Application streaming products are available from several software vendors.

Virtualization: Virtual containers

Virtual containers are self-contained virtual machines on the local PC. Virtual containers let you create individual, isolated work environments for a variety of scenarios. You can also use a managed virtual container to fully isolate and protect corporate data from personal data. This would allow you to increase security as necessary for sensitive information without frustrating users in their personal use of the system.

With virtual containers, the PC has at least one fully featured OS, and one or more additional, environments that are self-contained and used for specific purposes. For example, you could:

Use virtual containers to separate locked-down corporate applica- tions from more loosely-governed personal applications.

Deploy a highly managed, limited-access image to a contractor or temporary employee.

Allow employees to bring their own laptops into the office and use a managed virtual container to provide their applications. The virtualiza- tion software would abstract differences in the hardware, reducing the burden of validating the corporate image against the myriad of hardware combinations employees might be using.

Figure 7. Application streaming. Intel® Virtualization Technology supports OS and application streaming, a next-generation standard practice for managing, securing, and delivering applications to users.

Virtualization: Multiple OSs (traditional model)

The traditional model of virtualization gives the user access to multiple fully functional OS environments running in separate virtual machines. For example, the PC could have Microsoft Windows XP* and Linux* running side-by-side. This type of virtualization is also seeing significantly improved performance from the recent advances in Intel VT.

Traditional virtualization has typically been used:

By software developers and support staff who need to work in more than one OS environment but do not want more than one PC on their desk.

For OS migration, by keeping unportable legacy applications running in an earlier OS, while moving the rest of their applications over to Windows 7.

Traditional virtualization usually requires that you install a VMM software package from a vendor like VMware or Parallels, then build OS and applications images on top of the VMM software. Intel VT is enabled today in VMM packages from vendors such as VMware and Parallels.

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