What does VPC stand for?

NEC Corporation today announced the beginning of construction of one of Japan's largest virtual PC thin client systems as part of strengthening information security and reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) for Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co.

Tokyo, Sept 29, 2009 - (JCN Newswire) - NEC Corporation today announced the beginning of construction of one of Japan's largest virtual PC thin client systems as part of strengthening information security and reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) for Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co.

While it is true that PCs can do this with Microsoft's Virtual PC (and other tools), Microsoft is not aiming Virtual PC at the enterprise VDI market, with all the support tools of a one-to-many infrastructure.

So rather than an employee syncing a desktop PC with a laptop, he or she can access the same virtual PC from both pieces of equipment, or even from a cell phone or Blackberry.

The accompanying DVD contains Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, 40 scripts for automating administration, the Active Directory Topology Diagramming tool, Virtual Machine Remote Control Plus for remote administration, tools for automating conversions and resizing hard disks, video demos, and a searchable version of the book.

VM Optimizer works with VMware Workstation, VMware GSX Server, VMware ESX Server, Microsoft Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual Server.

Virtual PC is a software emulator that creates and simulates an actual PC environment within the Mac.

While VMware has multiple competitors in the server virtualization space, on the desktop it's biggest challenger is Microsoft itself, with Virtual PC 2004, which was launched in late 2003 following the acquisition of Connectix Corp in February last year.