Examining the rise of the virtualized desktop
One of the great things about spending time with IT executives is that they’re often way ahead of vendors and service providers when coming up with new technology requirements. Take what I’m calling “context-based computing”: As I noted in my previous column, while vendors are busy arguing about whether or not voice is a desktop application, the folks in the field are questioning the need for desktops at all. In the past few weeks I’ve met with several people who are looking to implement full-fledged virtualized desktop scenarios.
What they’re getting at is this: Just as virtualization has redefined the back-end server farm, it’s also recreating the user’s computing environments. IT executives are talking about downloading the operating system on demand to user machines, so the same hardware can be running Windows one day, Linux the next. And instead of having their personal machines, users have their “personal instances”: the customized operating system build, application mix and configuration that can be downloaded to whatever machine is local, wherever they need it.
Tie this into robust identity-management-based security, and you’ve got the makings of context-based computing (CBC) — a computing environment that follows users, provides resources based on the security of the local environment and makes use of the local computing power. It’s similar to the way your instant message buddy list and configuration will work whether you’re on your BlackBerry, your desktop or your friend’s PC, as long as you’re properly logged in.
Why do this? Because CBC provides the optimum blend between centralized management and control and user functionality. Unlike with client-server computing, users can execute complete applications locally, which improves performance. And users are no longer tethered to a particular machine — instead of lugging their laptops between home and work, they can download a “work build” onto their home machines, work securely from home, and then erase the build when they’re done. Or they can “hotel” from whatever office (and machine) happens to be available.
Yet IT maintains control over supported and supportable configurations as well as critical data and information (an issue that’s become increasingly important as information protection gains a high profile inside enterprises). Disconnecting a terminated employee from the enterprise becomes as simple as disallowing the download of their configuration; the data and applications never leave control of the enterprise.
The big challenge? CBC requires an always-on network — and not just the one that’s owned and operated by the enterprise. To make this scenario work, users need to be able to count on a readily available network no matter where they are. That means that as these virtualized desktops start rolling out over the next few years, network managers need to be sure they can to address these requirements.
The bottom line: the real question isn’t about whether something is, or isn’t, a desktop application. It’s whether the concept of a desktop continues to have meaning in an increasingly virtualized environment.
