Year In Review: VDI Explosion Coming Soon To A Desktop Near You

Toward the end of 2010, Gartner reported that more than 80% of enterprises have a virtualization program or project, and it joined a veritable army of research companies and vendors predicting that the desktop would be virtualized via solutions such as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or hosted virtual desktops (HVDs). However, according to a CDW survey, companies are finding that client virtualization is more complex to implement than they realized, that ROI is difficult to calculate, and that training end users can be a challenge.

Still, CDW found that 90% of businesses are considering or implementing client virtualization projects, most of them within the next 12 to 24 months. Of those with client virtualization plans, 61% said the driver is an expected reduction in IT costs; 40% are looking for easier distribution of software; 38% aim for increased IT productivity; and 37% seek to improve IT support services.

While vendors like Pano Logic and HP continue to trumpet the glories of zero or thin-client computing, sales are not keeping pace with the hype, at least not yet. IDC expects that U.S. thin-client sales will double during the next few years, but that will amount to less than 2 million units by 2013. "Many businesses are getting their feet wet, but not taking the plunge," states CDW in the report.

Citrix took a big step forward in revolutionizing the virtual desktop in August when it incorporated RingCube's personalization technology into a new release of its software, less than a month after acquiring the company. In addition to RingCube's Personal vDisk solution, XenDesktop 5.5 features the "most significant enhancement to Citrix high-definition HDX user experience technology," promising up to three times faster delivery for both LAN and WAN users at a fraction of the cost of competing solutions.

"Citrix is continuing to raise the bar in terms of the desktop virtualization feature set and is being very aggressive to give customers what they want," says Gartner Research VP Chris Wolf. "The Kaviza acquisition [the VDI-in-a-Box small-and-midsize-business solution acquired in May] can address many branch office scenarios, and gives Citrix a very cost-effective small office/branch office solution that is absent among their competitors. As I see it, Citrix realizes that they have a technology lead, they smell blood, and they’re going for the kill. Picking up Kaviza and RingCube are good examples. Just like with server virtualization, desktop virtualization can be very sticky. So the game right now is all about market penetration. Citrix is doing everything in its power to give prospects very compelling reasons to deploy their software and are having a high degree of success."

In September in a study commissioned by Dimension Data, Forrester Consulting reported that the number of virtual desktop deployments will grow from 27% to 46% in the next two years. The study states that organizations are still in the early stages of transforming their desktop infrastructures from legacy systems such as Windows XP (supported by 47%) to newer platforms like Windows 7 (supported by 31%). This transition is the perfect opportunity to embrace hybrid architectures, according to Forrester.

"New applications, more efficient remote access for mobile devices and quicker time to deploy are driving organizations to question whether deployments always need to be insourced and on-premise. Organizations are increasing their investments in cloud-hosted and managed applications and infrastructure services across most domains. Capex savings and reduced staffing requirements are driving increased interest and adoption. Cloud access and delivery opens up new possibilities for mobility and end user computing, and IT managers are increasingly turning to hybrid systems as they balance their legacy infrastructure with new capabilities and investments."

Citrix was back in the news the following month when it announced its VDI-in-a-Box 5, which eliminates more than 60% of VDI costs without compromising features such as user experience, security and high availability. What's most significant about the announcements is that we're no longer talking about mere desktop virtualization, says Rachel Chalmers, research director, The 451 Group. "We're talking about a complete transformation of the way desktops are managed."

She says VDI is just one of the tools organizations will use to transform the way they provision and manage all workspaces--not only desktops but also smartphones and tablets. "Kaviza's VDI-in-a-box fits because small and midsize businesses will use some VDI, and that technology allows them to scale it without effort. App-DNA fits because it tests all applications, fixes those that can't be migrated easily, and identifies targets for application virtualization as well as desktop virtualization."

Cisco was also looking to carve out a bigger slice out of the desktop virtualization market with new products, services and an expanded relationship with Citrix. The networking company says that hundreds of customers have rolled out Citrix XenDesktop and VMware View deployments based on Cisco data center solutions. However, after just over a year of working together, that is barely scratching the surface of a hosted virtual desktop market expected to reach 70 million units, or 15% of enterprise desktops and laptops, by 2014 (Gartner Forecast: Hosted Virtual Desktops, Worldwide, 2010-2014).

In November, Pano Logic unveiled the latest version of its zero client desktop virtualization hardware and software product, introduced Pano Controller, a modular architecture that enables flexible deployment options for large, heterogeneous virtual environments, and Pano Maestro, which eases device monitoring of distributed zero client endpoints. According to Simon Bramfitt, founder and research director, Entelechy Associates, the new Pano release puts the company into competition with thin clients like Wyse, HP and Dell. "It also suggests that Pano Logic feels the need to scale up for these large deployments." Bramfitt says the company has been quite successful in the SMB space, in large part by making the the purchasing decision and deployment very simple. "What's happening now with 5.0 is very interesting because it gives them the opportunity to look at something like XenDesktop, which is targeted at the high end, and against thin clients."

See more on this topic by subscribing to Network Computing Pro Reports Research: Virtualization Management (free, registration required).