Desktop virtualization promises to
improve PC manageability and flexibility.
Deploying and managing traditional desktops represents one of the most time-consuming and expensive operations supported by IT organizations. According to industry estimates, managing a typical end-user desktop can cost more than $5,000 a year. Unfortunately, even this high level of investment cannot keep pace with the rapid increase in application conflicts and corruptions that degrade user performance, reduce employee productivity, and increase the risk of data loss and security exposure.
Desktop virtualization helps relieve these headaches by consolidating and centralizing complete desktop environments within the data center. Desktop virtualization solutions transform the entire desktop — including operating system, applications and data — into an image that is stored and executed on a server. End-users can access their virtual desktops using a traditional PC, thin client or other network-connected device.
The potential benefits of the virtual desktop model are so great that many industry experts believe desktop virtualization will ultimately do much more than server virtualization to improve the management of the IT infrastructure. Analyst firm IDC predicts the total market for virtual desktop infrastructure products and services will exceed $1 billion by 2011.
“Virtualization on the client is perhaps two years behind (server virtualization), but it is going to be much bigger,” said Gartner Vice President and Distinguished Analyst Thomas Bittman. “On the PC, it is about isolation and creating a managed environment that the user can’t touch. This will help change the paradigm of desktop computer management in organizations. It will make the trend towards employee-owned notebooks more manageable, flexible and secure.”
A Better Approach
A virtual desktop functions as though it were running directly on the user’s computer, but critical data is kept in the data center where it can be more easily managed and secured. That approach is similar to the server-based computing model, in which servers run the applications and give users remote access via a stripped-down PC or thin client. However, desktop virtualization offers a much higher degree of customization. In essence, servers host an entire desktop environment specific to each user.
Virtual machine images are built and stored on servers and delivered to end-users as needed over the network or the Internet. These images can be customized with the operating system, applications, security settings and other personalization features required by specific users.
Hypervisor technology provides a bridge allowing users to access their desktop environments from traditional PCs or thin clients. When users authenticate to a server, the virtual desktop image gets loaded and boots with all of the preferences set. When they log off, any changes are loaded back into their base virtual image. With these virtual images stored in a central server, users have the ability to access their personalized computing environments from any device and any location, as long as they have a way of connecting to that central source.
Cost Savings, Security and More
Desktop virtualization offers a compelling alternative to traditional desktop management processes. With the ability to provision PCs and other client devices with software from a central location, IT staff can set up new users, workgroups or departments in just minutes, and manage and support a large number of workstations from the data center rather than at each user's desk.
The ability to control and manage desktops and updates centrally reduces the costs normally associated with the traditional distributed desktop model and increases IT efficiency. Workers also become more productive because they can get their full PC experience from any location.
Virtual machines are inherently more secure because operating systems and applications can be updated instantly from the data center. What’s more, virtual machines are protected from disaster, disruption, attack and theft.
Traditional distributed desktop computing — where everyone in an organization has his or her own PC or laptop loaded with applications and data — is expensive, complex, time-consuming and insecure. By extending the virtualization concept to the desktop, IT administrators can deploy virtual machines on every PC and deliver a complete desktop experience that is easy to manage, fast to deploy, less costly to maintain, always current and better protected.
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