While the concept of desktop virtualization may not be all that new, applying virtualization to smartphones is still a twinkling in the eye for most enterprise IT organizations.

Looking to speed that process along, VMware recently released version 1.5 of VMware Horizon Workspace, which adds support for a range of VMware-ready smartphones based on the Google Android operating system.

The goal is to give IT organizations a single platform through which they can manage virtualization on everything from desktop PCs to smartphones.

As an extension of the VMware Horizon Suite, the latest mobile computing platform from VMware is designed to allow IT organizations to cleanly delineate between corporate applications running on a smartphone and the personal applications deployed by the end user. Rather than allowing those lines to blur, Krishnamurti says applying virtualization on the smartphone solves a range of security and compliance issues that continue to bedevil IT organization struggling with the whole Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon as end users demand more access to corporate applications.