Red Bee Media tunes in to the virtual desktop

February 24, 2009: Australian broadcast production company Red Bee Media is buzzing about VMware View 3, VMware’s next generation virtual desktop solution.

As part of its move into a new media centre in Sydney, Red Bee, with the assistance of specialist VMware consulting practice, Woodbridge IT, deployed VMware View 3.

Red Bee was attracted to the ability to “decouple” a desktop from specific physical devices or locations to create a personalized view of a user’s desktop, applications, and data. Called “myView” – this is securely accessible from almost any device, at any time.

Chris Howe, Red Bee Media’s Managing Director, said, “Employees at our offices across Australia will use VMware View 3 to access production applications as well as Internet-facing applications, such as email and web browsing. The solution will help us realise all the productivity benefits of the PC along with the business benefits of virtualisation, including cost savings, operational efficiencies and improved security.

"By moving data from desktop devices into the data centre, VMware View 3 has enabled us to transform our desktop and gain greater control of our IT infrastructure, and provision new users almost instantly.”

Red Bee Media Head of Technology, Michael Tomkins, said, “Reduced storage costs were also a factor in the decision to deploy VMware View 3. VMware’s solution uses linked clone technology to rapidly create desktops from a master image, saving up to 90 per cent of the disk space that would have been required with older virtualisation technology.”

An additional benefit is that it allows the user to access a virtual desktop offline on any device, allowing increased productivity and flexible working opportunities for some employees.

“Offline desktops, which are still being trialled, are an attractive feature that will allow selected employees to take their virtual desktops ‘off the grid’ without the need for an Internet connection,” said Tomkins.

Comment on this story.