Viarengo says Horizon is similar to efforts by Citrix to address use of mobile and personal devices in the workplace. Were after the same thing, he says, but claims that VMware has a better track record of integrating its platforms.

He says the Project Octopus file synching capabilities could be a separate commercial product right now rather than a beta offering, but VMware wants to deliver it managed under an overarching platform rather than as a standalone product.

Also during the keynote, VMware demonstrated a way to upgrade PCs from Windows XP to Windows 7 as well as provide PC images to a variety of machines as backups using a blend of VMware View with Mirage software the company acquired when it bought Wanova earlier this year.

During the demo a laptop running Windows XP was upgraded to Windows 7, preserving applications, user data and preferences. Viarengo says he expects that since just 30% of enterprises still using Windows XP have upgraded to Windows 7, they may show interest in View with Mirage as a migration tool.