VMware (VMW) offered a preview of its upcoming Workstation 11 and Player 7 Pro virtualization solutions, both of which are expected to give users enhanced performance and cloud connectivity with the VMware vCloud Air ecosystem and support the most advanced virtual environments. The announcements mark the 15-year anniversary of the original release of Workstation, which debuted in 1999.

“VMware Workstation pioneered the virtualization industry 15 years ago and countless industries and professionals have since used the solution to effectively help modernize the workplace,” said Nicolas Rochard, director of Product Marketing, End-User Computing at VMware, in a statement. “VMware Workstation 11 will be the ultimate Swiss army knife that helps developers and IT administrators extend their virtual environments from their laptops, to the data center and the public cloud.”

Workstation 11 is VMware’s advanced enterprise solution designed to allow software engineers and IT administrators to run up to 16 virtual CPUs with 2GB of video memory per virtual machine. Workstation 11 will support the latest versions of Windows and Linux and will be able to run more than 200 operating systems, including the recently announced Microsoft Windows 10 Tech Preview, according to the company.

Workstation 11 supports the new Intel Haswell microarchitecture processors and is expected to deliver up to 45 percent improvement in CPU-intensive operations compared to the previous version, according to VMware. Users also extend and scale their virtual machines to the public cloud via vSphere or vCloud Air integration, and can drag and drop virtual machines between a PC and a private cloud running vSphere, VMware ESXi or another instance of Workstation at will.

VMware Player 7 Pro is the company’s streamlined virtualization solution for IT admins who need to run one or more operating systems on the same computer. Player 7 Pro is expected to help IT professionals get employees set up with a corporate desktop with feature such as enhanced operating system compatibility with Windows 8.1 and older operating systems in a virtual environment. The solution also will be able to run restricted virtual machines created by VMware Workstation 11 or VMware Fusion 7 Pro.

Both new solutions will require 64-bit processor and 64-bit host operating systems to run advanced computing functions and increase performance, according to VMware. VMware plans to release both new versions in December, although a specific date has not been provided. Workstation 11 will retail for $249.99, with Player 7 Pro setting users back $149.99. 

Customers who purchase Workstation 10 and Player 6 Pro between October and the time of release will receive a free electronic upgrade to Workstation 11 and Player 7 Pro, according to the company. A free trial of Workstation 10 can also be downloaded now if customers are on the fence about purchasing the new software.