Tranxition’s ‘Adaptive’ Desktop Virtualization

Tranxition is set to release a solution it says will make desktop virtualization more flexible and cost-effective. The ten-year-old virtualization provider plans to debut its AdaptivePersona software at next week’s VMworld 2009 conference in San Francisco.

The cost savings comes by virtualizing a user’s desktop. Tranxition says that AdaptivePersona creates a kind of protective bubble that protects a user’s environment and app customizations from changes in the outside infrastructure, such as upgrades to the operating system.

“We don’t do application management, we do desktop personality,” explains Amy Hodler, director of product management at Tranxition. “We do everything to make the virtual machine look like yours, including the data files, the applications, .PST files, custom signatures in Outlook, Exchange signature, keyboard mapping and so on.”

The company quotes industry estimates that an enterprise with 3,000 desktops typically spends $1.2 to $1.9 million a year in direct IT labor costs to manage their desktops. AdaptivePersona cuts as much as 40 percent of that ongoing labor cost, according to Tranxition.

The software works with virtualization solutions such as VMware. The ApativePersona bubble works with key infrastructure changes so, for example, with an upgrade to Microsoft Vista or the forthcoming Windows 7, user settings are translated automatically.

The system is also portable, so registered users can log in from other computers than their usual PC and have access to all desktop applications and files.

“Everything is always updated on the server,” said Hodler. “Our personality hypervisor is unique because it’s focused on the user. We don’t do machine and image level application virtualization. The AdaptivePersona is focused on the user and what they consider essential.”

Smartshadow technology

Tranxition’s ‘SmartShadow’ technology is key to AdaptivePersona because it does automatic translation of settings like XP to Vista and back. “This lets IT eliminate user migration as a ‘project,'” says Hodler. “If someone needs a loaner laptop, for example, they can get right to work. They haven’t lost any of their data.”

AdaptivePersona will be available in two editions starting next month: a “Foundation” edition focused on user virtualization for hosted virtual desktops; and an “Advanced” edition that adds SmartShadow translation and virtual desktop migration for more complex environments.

Forrester analyst Natalie Lambert said AdaptivePersona should be of interest to VMware shops. “Anything a company can deploy to lower cost is good,” she told InternetNews.com. “In this case, it’s about separating out all the user personality to a granular level and anything that makes the footprint smaller cuts costs.”

She expects other so-called desktop ‘personality’ solutions to be unveiled at VMworld because it solves a “big pain point.”

Lambert also says VMware (NYSE: VMW) competitor Citrix offers some of the same functionality as AdaptivePersona in its core offering. “Most companies prefer to deal with a one-stop shop, integrated solution,” she said.

IDC‘s enterprise virtualization analyst Mike Rose said AdaptivePersona could broaden the reach of virtual desktop technology. “Tranxition’s AdaptivePersona is an important technology in making desktop virtualization cost effective and scalable,” Rose said in a statement.

“We believe solutions that break the one-to-one relationship between desktop experience and infrastructure can enable organizations to deploy Centralized Virtual Desktops to a broader range of users than would otherwise be possible with base platforms.”