Mokafive Version 1

I recently had a chance to speak with Dr. John Whaley, Co-founder and CTO of MokaFive. His company has developed a different approach to desktop virtualization (read a combination of virtual machine software, application virtualization and streaming) that, he hopes, will revolutionize how organizations create, deliver and administer desktop environments. MokaFive's Live PC technology has gone through a long beta test period and on May 20th entered the market.

How does MokaFive describe its technology?

MokaFive is the pioneer in virtual desktop technology and it shows. Never before has any company made it so effortless to create, deliver, secure, update, and control the entire life cycle of your virtual desktops. MokaFive's next-generation Virtual Desktop Solution™ gives you all the tools, technology and service you need. With MokaFive's LivePC™ virtual desktop you can save time, increase productivity, reduce complexity... and costs. Plus, you can give your users unprecedented flexibility and performance without sacrificing an ounce of security or control.

What are the components of MokaFive's offering?

MokaFive is offering their technology in two ways, a MokaFive Professional Solution and a Free MokaFive Express Solution. Both versions contain the MokaFive Creator and MokaFive Player. Both versions allow the creation and playing of virtual desktops. The Professional Solution goes one step further by providing the tools to create a MokaFive Service that allows an organization to stream MokaFive LivePC's and administer how those LivePC's work.

Snapshot Analysis

Several competitors, including VMware, LANDesk, Provision Networks to name a few, have developed ways to encapsulate either applications or entire desktop environments and deliver them to remote systems. Some of these suppliers offer the ability for that capsule to be run "somewhere in the cloud" and the access to that application or complete desktop environment using access virtualization (often referred to as "VDI"). MokaFive is going to be challenged to get its messages out in a very busy, noisy market.

MokaFive appears to have come up with an approach that allows these capsules to be created on the fly to meet the requirements on a person-by-person, or group-by-group basis. Each time the desktop is accessed, a new copy is created. This means that worms and viruses have trouble getting into the environment. This might be one of the company's key distinguishing features.

If your organization is interested in this approach to providing a desktop experience without necessarily having your own desktop system, it might be worth downloading the Express Solution or asking for a 30-day free trial of the Professional Solution.

I'm going to be traveling to Boston on Tuesday morning to attend a VMware analyst event. I'll let you know some of what I learn.