What's up with Virtual Desktops?

There's renewed interest now with the introduction of Windows 7 to evaluate desktop virtualization.  This "trend" though is no surprise to Timothy Stammers, senior analyst at OVUM.  Tim, along with his colleague Steve Hodgkinson, authored a comprehensive report on the virtual desktop market this summer, Enterprise Virtual Desktop Alternatives:  A Market Scan.  

Coming on the heels of VMworld and Citrix Analyst day, we caught up with Tim to discuss trends in desktop virtualization for the latest in our Beyond the Hype podcast series. For this segment, we talk to Tim about how mature a market opportunity desktop virtualization presents and where the cloud fits into all of this.  

As Tim mentions, coming out of VMworld and the Citrix event, there was more of a renewed focus on desktop systems.  Tim elaborates on the "Battle for desktop virtualization" which he sees began in 2007 when Citrix and VMware launched their first solutions. He goes on to talk about how far we've come and how both Citrix and VMware have large install bases with Citrix claiming more than 7,000 customers and VMware more than a 1,000,000 seats.

In this new era of virtualization as Tim describes, the market is mature and he is definitely seeing demand. We've gone past the point where "it's going to happen" as Tim says. He adds that one of the sticking points is persuading users of the cost savings as he feels the costs can be hard to predict.

He goes on to talk about what he is seeing in the market around use cases and how, from his perspective, there is a mix of three architectures around traditional thin clients, streaming and VDI or, as he says, is probably better labeled as hosted virtual desktops. And, there can be no discussion around virtualization where implications for the cloud aren't raised. Tim closes with his thoughts on virtual desktops and implications for the cloud.  As Tim sees it, there are still concerns around security and network latency but he notes how IBM has promised to host desktops in the cloud.

We hope you will enjoy this podcast. Please feel free to share your feedback as we welcome your comments and thoughts.

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Beyond the Hype - Episode 13