With remote deployments, think long and hard before going with an onsite server This introduces additional complexity, and without server redundancy, resource distribution/failover will still need to tie back to your data center. Most companies will be better off truly centralizing the entire effort and deploying only thin clients onsite.
If you have a server virtualization effort under way, virtualized desktops could reside on the same hosts in the short term. In the long run, however, aim to split the two, albeit not necessarily into separate management points. Not only will segregation separate server and desktop I/O and ease management, it will keep your environment organized.
Multifaceted Fun
IT has traditionally had a hard time selling the concept of thin clients to end users, despite much-touted cost savings and the best efforts of vendors. Larry Ellison said during a press conference in March 1996 that "The era of the PC is almost over, and the era of the [thin client] is about to begin." Scott McNealy was also on that bandwagon. More than a decade later, however, thin clients still command only a small fraction of the desktop market, in spite of ever-increasing security concerns and efforts to go green.
Fortunately, VDI goes beyond simply being a desktop replacement or development testbed. For example, desktop virtualization can provide an environment for pesky legacy applications or those requiring odd support models or nonstandard OSes. Apps that rely on a subset of files or drivers that might not play well with others are also prime candidates for VDI, as are desktop environments or applications where high security is a requirement. Resources could be deployed on a "need to know" basis to select employees, and are by default isolated, so accidental access by unauthorized users is unlikely. The same holds true for expensive applications where you want to restrict the number of licenses.
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