Top six VDI news stories of 2015

Long before Dell revealed its EMC-VMware buy in the fall, VMware made an acquisition of its own, purchasing Immidio, a small workspace virtualization management company. The deal helps improve VMware's App Volumes layering software, which compartmentalizes apps to ease deployment for VDI shops, especially with the potential of Immidio's user environment management tools.  

The purchase was a direct shot at taking customers away from Citrix's XenApp. Industry observers expected VMware to make a move like this, but Immidio was not on most people's radars because it doesn't have a huge user base. Still, the move makes financial sense, and Immidio's capabilities do not overlap with VMware's existing tools.

The golden goose for VMware is Immidio's Flex+ workspace virtualization tool. With this tool, IT admins can give their users personalized desktops and restrict or provide access to certain resources depending on the user's role, device or location. Immidio Flex+ does not come with app rights management or the ability to elevate privileges, though, so IT can't give users temporary admin rights.