In March 2008 Microsoft acquired an interesting startup called Kidaro, which was focused on the corporate virtual machine security segment (something we call “platform wrappers” in the Virtualization Industry Radar).
The original product, Managed Workspace, was renamed in Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V), and relaunched as a beta in January 2009.
Microsoft plans release the product in H2 2009 as part of the much hated software bundle called Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), which means that no potential customer will ever see it unless it has an enterprise license agreement with the Software Assurance.
The company insists to claim MDOP a smart and successful product but the reality is that an endless number of customers have complains about the bundle and can’t access both MED-V and App-V because of it.
There’s no chance that Microsoft chances its mind about MDOP but at least this time is releasing a public demo version (not exactly a trial) of MED-V 1.0 beta that anybody can download and install.
The kit comes as a Virtual PC 2007 virtual machine and its preconfigured to show the use of legacy applications in a Windows XP SP 3 virtual environment on top of a Windows Vista host.
The 1GB package will expire on June 30, 2009, so it’s safe to assume that MED-V 1.0 will be released around that timeframe.