Virtualization vendors take aim at desktop

More than 20 join VMware to form industry group targeting efficiency, flexibility.

VMware this week will announce it has formed an industry group, the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Alliance, with more than 20 other software, hardware and service providers. The alliance is aimed at building joint virtual desktop offerings.

VMware, a subsidiary of EMC, envisions desktop virtualization, in which IT administrators host and centrally manage desktops in virtual machines on servers in data centers, as a way to mitigate costs and time spent on managing and securing desktop PCs, especially for companies with remote workers or outsourced operations.

Charter members of the group include application virtualization vendors Altiris and Softricity; thin-client computing providers Citrix, Sun and Wyse; and PC blade and server blade makers ClearCube, HP and IBM. With desktop virtualization, users could use traditional desktop PCs, thin-client devices or other hardware that can connect to servers through Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol.

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VMware this week will announce it has formed an industry group, the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Alliance, with more than 20 other software, hardware and service providers. The alliance is aimed at building joint virtual desktop offerings.

VMware, a subsidiary of EMC, envisions desktop virtualization, in which IT administrators host and centrally manage desktops in virtual machines on servers in data centers, as a way to mitigate costs and time spent on managing and securing desktop PCs, especially for companies with remote workers or outsourced operations.

Charter members of the group include application virtualization vendors Altiris and Softricity; thin-client computing providers Citrix, Sun and Wyse; and PC blade and server blade makers ClearCube, HP and IBM. With desktop virtualization, users could use traditional desktop PCs, thin-client devices or other hardware that can connect to servers through Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol.

"The potential here is a lot more efficient use of hardware, better centralized management and potentially more flexibility with users in that they're not tied to a particular desktop device," says Gordon Haff, senior analyst for Illuminata. "I don't believe there's a one-size-fits-all approach, we'll probably end up with a combination of thin clients and various types of fat clients."

"Desktop virtualization is a very immature market, but we do see some customers doing it, because it gives them the ability to physically house operating systems and data files somewhere they have control, whether that's for security or manageability reasons," says Al Gillen, research director for system software at IDC. "Where it becomes more attractive is where customers use thin-client devices, when they move from a fat client to a thin client on the desktop. That's where the real benefits in acquisition and ownership costs can be realized."

But vendors still need to do a lot of work to make it easier and less expensive for users, analysts say. One of the biggest technological hurdles does not lie in hardware, but in software to manage images, provisioning and connections, Haff says.

VMware will collaborate with members to create, test and integrate joint desktop-hosting offerings, says Jerry Chen, director of enterprise desktops for VMware.

Jim Jones, senior network administrator, with WTC Communications, a 30-employee service provider in Wamego, Kan., has used VMware to consolidate servers. Last September he started to virtualize some of the company's desktops.

"It kind of happened naturally; we needed a PC in short order, and we just had an old junker lying around. So we thought let's just try Windows XP in it, and it was neat and it worked. We didn't have to go out and buy another Dell," Jones says.

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