Research: Desktop virtualization growing in popularity
Summary: Desktop virtualization has
been around for several years, but is gaining traction among companies
around the world, with the number of users nearly doubling in the past
five years. This report focuses on the results of TechRepublic's survey
on who is using virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), which are the
favored vendors, and the perceived pros and cons.
Desktop virtualization is growing in popularity, even though
it's been around for several years. In June, TechRepublic conducted a
survey to see who is using virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and
discover the benefits and drawbacks — both expected and unexpected.
Download the survey results in the new report Research: Virtual desktop infrastructure benefits, drivers and favored vendors.
For those curious to learn more about VDI, from a conceptual
standpoint, it isn't much different from the old dumb terminal/mainframe
setup that was used 30 years ago. Of course, the technology has
changed, and it's no longer necessary to have a huge computer that fills
a room to act as the backend.
At its very base level, there are usually a few VDI servers sitting
in a data center and these servers act as the brains of the operation.
They generally handle all of the compute resources and IOPs, while the
virtual desktops are deployed to users on laptops, desktops, mobile
devices or thin clients. The virtual desktop acts the same as if users
were working on a computer with local resources. For example, they can
see their Windows 7 screen and interact with it as they would on any
other computer. An important difference here is that the administrator
has more control. The admin can dictate the times users can access their
desktop, load the proper applications — and even wipe all the data if
the end user device is stolen or an employee leaves the organisation.
Because of this flexibility, which allows more mobility among
employees, the number of VDI users has nearly doubled over the last five
years, according to the TechRepublic survey results.
The survey, which had 255 respondents, broke down the numbers by
company size and geography, to find out exactly who is using VDI and
where.
The report covers a range of VDI topics, including:
Preferred vendors
Benefits of VDI
Reasons for using certain vendors
Reasons some companies are not using VDI
What would make some companies change their minds about VDI
WASHINGTON: Scientists have discovered that a brain protein deficiency significantly contributes to age-related memory loss.
A team of researchers, led by Nobel laureate Eric R Kandel, has found
that deficiency of RbAp48 in the hippocampus is a significant
contributor to age-related memory loss and that this form of memory loss is reversible.
The study conducted in postmortem human brain cells and in mice, also
offers the strongest causal evidence that age-related memory loss and Alzheimer's disease are distinct conditions.
"Our study provides compelling evidence that age-related memory loss is
a syndrome in its own right, apart from Alzheimer's. In addition to the
implications for the study, diagnosis, and treatment of memory
disorders, these results have public health consequences," said Columbia
University Medical Center (CUMC) researcher Kandel.
The
hippocampus, a brain region that consists of several interconnected
subregions, each with a distinct neuron population, plays a vital role
in memory.
Studies have shown that Alzheimer's disease hampers
memory by first acting on the entorhinal cortex (EC), a brain region
that provides the major input pathways to the hippocampus, researchers
said.
It was initially thought that age-related memory loss is
an early manifestation of Alzheimer's, but mounting evidence suggests
that it is a distinct process that affects the dentate gyrus (DG), a
subregion of the hippocampus that receives direct input from the EC.
"Until now, however, no one has been able to identify specific
molecular defects involved in age-related memory loss in humans," said
co-senior author Scott A Small, director of the Alzheimer's Research
Center at CUMC.
Researchers began by performing microarray (gene
expression) analyses of postmortem brain cells from the DG of eight
people, aged 33 to 88, all of whom were free of brain disease.
The analyses identified 17 candidate genes that might be related to
ageing in the DG. The most significant changes occurred in a gene called
RbAp48, whose expression declined steadily with ageing across the study
subjects.
To determine whether RbAp48plays an active role in age-related memory loss, the researchers turned to mouse studies.
"The first question was whether RbAp48is downregulated in aged mice,"
said lead author Elias Pavlopoulos, associate research scientist in
neuroscience at CUMC.
"And indeed, that turned out to be the case - there was a reduction of RbAp48 protein in the DG," said Pavlopoulos.
When the researchers genetically inhibited RbAp48in the brains of
healthy young mice, they found the same memory loss as in aged mice, as
measured by novel object recognition and water maze memory tests. When
RbAp48inhibition was turned off, the mice's memory returned to normal.
The study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. SAR AKJ SAR
LONDON:
Space enthusiasts now have a unique chance to explore the solar system
with their own spacecraft, just for £199 ( 20423)! A British
company plans to launch thousands of miniature probes on to the Moon,
each of which can be bought for £199 and personalized by the sponsor. The probes, to be launched by Pocket Spacecraft, are the size of a CD
and as thin as a piece of paper . They will be released over the Earth
in June 2015 and over the Moon in June 2016. Explorers can
personalize their own spacecraft by adding a picture and customizing the
message it transmits using just their web browser. People can watch
online as their Pocket Spacecraft is built in the lab and loaded into an
Interplanetary CubeSat Mothership. Having hitched a ride into
space on a commercial rocket, some Pocket Spacecraft will be released
into space to flutter to the ground to demonstrate landing on a planet
with an atmosphere (the Earth). The mothership will set off to the Moon where, when it arrives many months later, the rest
of the Pocket Spacecraft will be released , photographed and then land
on the Moon to complete the mission. The owners can monitor progress
throughout with their own Pocket Mission Control app to track the
progress of their spacecraft as it is designed, built and travels
through space. The data from an individual's spacecraft's
instruments as it arrives is relayed from space by a global ground
station network direct to their smartphone. Users can also hold their phone up to the sky and use the augmented reality
feature to point out exactly where their spacecraft is, the company
said on Kickstarter. The company hopes that when the probes are launched
in June 2015 they will usher in a new era of low-cost , disposable
space science.
