At a time when large numbers of organizations are contemplating their next Windows move following the termination of Windows XP support in early 2014, interest in desktop virtualization is on the rise. Not only has the performance of desktop virtualization technologies considerably improved as of late, IT organizations are finding that many end users are not as enamored of their stand-alone Windows desktops as they once were.
What Business Leaders Need to Know About Virtualization
Looking to tap into the growing momentum surrounding desktop virtualization, NComputing released a new version of its vSpace Server software that adds support for Windows 8 alongside Windows Server 2012 and Windows Multipoint Server 2012 platforms.
According to NComputing CEO Raj Dhingra, one of the biggest drivers to the adoption of vSpace is that NComputing has taken the total cost of deploying a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) down to the equivalent cost of a standalone PC. At the moment, there are two flavors of the company’s VDI portfolio. One is a platform based on NComputing server software and protocols aimed at the small-to-medium (SMB) market. The other is an implementation that supports the Citrix desktop virtualization protocols aimed at larger enterprise organizations.
Version 7.1 of vSpace Server makes use of vSpace Management to allow organizations to centrally manage tens of thousands of desktops running on thin client systems from NComputing. Dhingra says it’s that need to reduce administration costs associated with deploying Windows desktops that is pushing so many organizations to re-evaluate VDI just as Microsoft is saying it’s about to eliminate official support for Windows XP.
Despite the availability of Windows 7 and Windows 8, most companies are still running Windows XP for a wide variety of reasons, ranging from lack of funding for upgrades to custom applications that don’t run as well on another Windows platform. Whatever the reason, IT organizations across the corporate landscape are about to make some significant decisions about how the next version of Windows will be deployed and managed in their organization that most of them will probably have to live with well past the middle of the decade.
