Will the Cloud Save the Virtual Desktop?

When Is It Right for a Business to Consider Desktop Virtualization?

Tips for determining whether desktop virtualization is right for your business.

No one can deny that desktop virtualization has met with greater success than many other IT technologies over the years. After all, it's still with us. And yet, it seems it will forever fight against the perception of failure considering the legions of desktop environments out there that are not virtualized. Even at 5 million seats or more, desktop virtualization remains a drop in the bucket in the vast sea of traditional desktops populating enterprises large and small throughout the globe.

For most enterprises, then, the move toward virtualized desktop infrastructure (VDI) is not as clear-cut, nor inevitable, as it may seem. Are there enough eligible desktops to justify the upfront costs? And will it prove to be a wise investment as users become less reliant on desktops altogether in favor of more flexible mobile devices?

Of late, however, a new factor has entered into the equation - one that purports to both lower overall costs and improve flexibility. Just as cloud computing has revolutionized the way enterprises purchase and provision centralized resources like servers and storage, so too is it seen as the means to push VDI into the mainstream.

With the cloud, creation of a full realized virtual desktop infrastructure becomes as easy as provisioning cloud-based storage. That doesn't mean there are no operational or integration issues, but it is a substantial improvement on the cost and complexity of building in internal VDI environment.