To date, Microsoft has its own Session Broker, but it has an agreement for close cooperation on this front (as on many others) with Citrix.
Yesterday Citrix has released XenDesktop v2.0 (do not be mislead by the numbers: you have not lost anything it is the first version), which offers one Session Broker able to use as a server virtualization XenServer, VMWare ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V (once available).
XenDesktop can be installed on Windows Server 2003 and will supports virtual desktops Windows XP and Windows Vista.
An interesting aspect of the product is its complete integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. XenDesktop is made up of several elements that combined in different ways building the different packages available:
* Desktop Delivery Controller (DDC or, in beta called Desktop Server)
* XenServer as backend virtualization
* Provisioning for the streaming servers
* XenApp for applications virtualization
* AccessGateway which work as SSL VPN gateway
* The suite of control EdgeSight
* The QoS engine WANScaler
* The remote operator GoToAssist
* The VoIP Gateway EasyCall
These elements combine to give the following different editions:
- Standard Edition: contains XenServer, Desktop Delivery Controller, Access Gateway
- Advanced Edition: everything in the Standard Edition plus the Provisioning Server
- Enterprise Edition: everything the Advanced Edition plus XenApp
- Platinum Edition: everything in the Enterprise Edition plus EdgeSight, WANScaler, GoToAssist, and EasyCall
Also there’s an Express version, which is free. Its equal in functionality to the Standard edition, but limited to 10 concurrent users. You can also download the trial version of the other Editions.