Mobile virtualization

December 12, 2008, 9:12am PST | Length: 00:03:35

Mike Seashols, Chairman of VirtualLogix, talks about implementing virtualization technologies onto mobile platforms. He says there are many issues that mobile providers have to think about--like time to market, cost, and the ability to update devices.

Transcript

Mobile virtualization

>> Mike Seashols : Hi I'm Mike Seashols, chairman of Virtual Logics. I'm here today to talk about mobile virtualization. Virtualization is a hot topic right now. Gartner Group has recognized it as the second most aggressive thing to think about in your 2009 and 2010 planning. When you look at the mobile market, there are several issues that each one of these providers have to think about - time to market. If you're in the device market, it's speed to market, new features, new functions, new form factors. Time to market's critical. Second is lowest possible cost. You've got to keep that device cost down. Functionality - the richness, the behavioral feel of the product. Functionality is critical. Performance - it has to go fast, and it just has no lag time; and then the ability to update that device, because as these new applications come onboard you want to be able to update that device. Virtualization software is the key to this. If you look at the device itself, it's a form factor of hardware. Within that hardware you have CPU's and IO's, it's silicone. Virtualization is a software layer of technology that sits on top of the silicone of the device itself. Virtualization then takes over the control between the application and the device itself. Now on top of the virtualization layer, the keys are the operating systems. And the operating systems that have been traditionally in the device market has been the real-time operating systems, a lot of different popular brands. Within those, there's been a significant amount of application development. That has been the traditional device architecture, real-time operating systems, the app, and the device. But what's happened is the behavior of that applications have just not been able to keep up with the functionality of that device wants to deliver. So what has entered the market now is the Linux. Linux, very popular open source operating system, and it has brought even more significant application functionality to the device environment. Also as these devices are becoming more and more part of your personal computer or your laptop, or your enterprise, the proliferation of Windows for this device has become very popular; and all the periphery of applications on top of the Windows. You need to put a layer of security around this operating environment so that the information and the processes are being isolated in their own stack. So let me highlight some key features and benefits that we've talked about. First, the multiple operating systems; being able to run distinct operating systems on top of this virtualization layer. It allows you a security to be able to have each one of these stacks of applications on top of these OS's, to be distinct in their own right and not be mixed up. Reuse of the application, the inventory of applications that are already available on these operating systems - key to the device delivery, for time to market. If you're a developer, think about how virtualization software can help you address time to market and application functionality. If you're an operator, how do you update your device to keep it as current as possible?