Akamai looks to speed virtual desktop delivery

The desktop is the next frontier for many virtualization adopters. But deploying a desktop virtualization environment to a global user base raises new performance issues for enterprises.

This week Akamai Technologies unveiled a managed service designed to speed the delivery of virtualized applications and desktops.

Akamai has tailored its existing IP Application Accelerator service (which speeds browser-based applications) to optimize traffic from virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) products such as those offered by Citrix, Microsoft and VMware. The service includes professional services specific to virtual desktops, customized integrations to VDI products, and concurrent user-based pricing.

Industry research predicts virtual desktop-connected devices will grow to approximately 66 million by the end of 2014, or 15% of all traditional professional desktop PCs, according to Akamai.

A key driver of virtual desktops is the opportunity to centralize the management of desktops, which can cut back on the need to deploy IT staff to sites around the world for desktop maintenance, says Neil Cohen, Akamai’s director of product marketing. “We see a lot of virtual applications and desktops being deployed in the long haul because that is where TCO associated with managing desktops becomes prohibitive.”

But the performance challenges can’t be ignored. “One of the challenges with virtualized protocols is that, similar to Web applications, the further you get away from the infrastructure, the worse the performance gets,” Cohen says.

In addition, the bandwidth consumed by virtual protocols is significant; virtualized desktop computing for 100 users in a branch can easily consume more than a T-1 of bandwidth on its own, Cohen says.

Akamai’s managed services model can be a good match for global VDI deployments, Cohen says. It doesn’t require an upfront capital expense, nor do IT departments have to implement software changes or roll out client software.

Akamai’s virtualization acceleration service uses public Internet links, rather than private WAN connections. Virtualized applications and desktops can be deployed over Akamai's Internet-based network of more than 50,000 servers spread across 70 countries – so enterprises can avoid having to upgrade their private networks to handle global VDI traffic, Akamai says.

Ann Bednarz is associate news editor at Network World.