As new vendors enter the x86 virtualization space, pioneer VMware, Inc. is moving on to the next frontier, cloud computing, said VMware President and Chief Executive Officer Diane Greene in her keynote address at the JP Morgan Technology Conference in Boston on May 21.

“The dream of cloud computing is fast becoming reality,” she said.

With cloud computing, workloads are assigned to connections, software and services, which are accessed over a network of servers and connections in various locations, collectively known as “the cloud.” Using a thin client or other access point, like an iPhone or laptop, users can access the cloud for resources on demand.

Greene told the event attendees that the evolution of virtualization begins with users deploying VMs for testing and development, then easing into server consolidations for production environments. The third phase is resource aggregation, with entire data centers being virtualized, followed by automation of all of those aggregated workloads. The final “liberation” phase is cloud computing, Greene said.

“We now have competition going after the first two phases of virtualization evolution with 1.0 products, but we are very much in the aggregate, automate and liberate phase,” Greene said.

Other vendors have their sights set on cloud computing as well. IBM Corp. and Google announced plans to promote cloud computing in October by investing over $20 million in the hardware, software and services at universities, and Reuters reported this week that Microsoft expects companies will abandon their own in-house computer systems and shift to cloud computing as a less expensive alternative.

While VMware moves towards cloud computing, the company is in the thick of the automation phase and has released a number of virtualization automation products recently, including VMware Site Recovery Manager for Disaster Recovery, VMware Stage Manager and VMware Lifecycle Manager for lifecycle management and VMware Lab Manager, as well as product and service bundles.

The company is also focusing on desktop virtualization with Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and has introduced services and products to move that inititive forward.

“Desktop virtualization does require a major change in the infrastructure, so it could be 2011 before we see desktop virtualization adoption in the millions. We do have hosted desktop virtualization customers with large deployments…but [adoption] will happen at a measured pace,” Greene said. “I do think someday everyone’s desktop will run in a virtual machine, whether it be on PCs or MACs, thin clients or phones. With the advantages from a security, manageability and flexibility standpoint, it will become mainstream.”

The cost of desktop virtualization is a barrier to adoption, but Greene said the price per user of desktop virtualization will come down steadily over the next few years. It is in the $800 per user range today, she said.

VMware Inc. Senior Director of Enterprise Desktops Gerald Chen visited our office on Tuesday morning to discuss the different types of desktop virtualization and answer common questions about Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), for example, how it differs from terminal services and cost issues.

Here’s how VDI works: each end user gets a virtual machine (VM) that is deployed from a server in the data center directly to a PC, laptop or thin client computer. Each VM is customizable, so all of the user’s settings are saved and re-booted each time the user signs in, Chen said.

When a user logs off for the day, their VM goes idle, and wakes back up when the user logs into their system again, according to Chen. Chen believes that the advantage of VDI is that sensitive data is not being stored on desktops, which can easily be lost or stolen, and these virtual desktops are easier to manage than physical ones.

“VDI is great for industries like health care that are really concerned about information security and compliance. The real value though, is in management. All of the information is safe in the data center, and centrally managed through Virtual Infrastructure,” Chen said. “For instance, if you have 100 new employees who need desktops, you can deploy a VM for each of them in just minutes, and manage all of them centrally.”

VDI is different from Sever Based Computing (SBC) systems like Citrix Systems Inc.’s XenApp in that VDI is connects a single user to a single operating system (OS), instead of having multiple users share one OS.

“Not every application likes to share an OS, and there is also bad isolation; if one application crashes, everyone sharing that OS crashes as well. Those desktops can’t be customized either. It is a locked environment.”

Chen went on to explain that with VDI, four to ten VMs per server core are supported, so a server with one quad-core processor can, theoretically, house 40 VMs. Of course, that varies depending on things like workload, applications and memory. If the VMs become too heavy for the server to handle, management features in VI3 intervene. VMotion can move live VMs from one server to another when capacity issues arise, as can Dynamic Resource Scheduler, which allocates and balances computing resources as needed using VMotion.

Desktop virtualization case study
As VMware announced customer case studies in February, including one at Huntsville Hospital in Huntsville, Alabama.

The hospital needed to implement a new medical information application throughout its network while protecting HIPAA-related data. Deploying hosted desktops on VMware, the hospital could lock down sensitive patient data and reduce the cost and complexity of desktop management.

They used combinations of thin clients and blade servers to access the centralized virtual desktops, and in turn, reduced power consumption across the hospital by 78%, improved longevity with lower hardware maintenance needs and made wireless thin clients on wheeled carts available to hospital staff. Also, doctors can remotely access their VMs through the Internet using a web browser when necessary.

The downside to desktop virtualization
While the benefits are clear, there are some downsides to desktop virtualization: extra storage and initial cost.

Chen told SearchServerVirtualization.com that VMware is working on reducing image sizes and has designed a way to keep only one copy of files that are identical among many users, like icons and other graphics, to reduce the amount of storage necessary.

The cost of implementing desktop virtualization turns users off. According to Ars Open Forum blogger ‘Bright Wire,’ the cost and the magnitude of system upgrades required is not worth the benefits.

“The cost of deploying virtual desktops is massive,” Bright Wire wrote. “You will need to re-gear your existing desktops to run the virtual or you will need vendor equipment that costs twice as much as a new desktop. Either way, the cost is big in manpower. On top of that, your infrastructure will need serious review.”

According to VMware’s product specifications, local desktop virtualization requires a 500 MHz or faster processor with recommended 256 MB of memory, though Forrester reports that PCs must be faster and have more RAM to work efficiently.

“In addition you need to look into the server infrastructure,” Bright Wire said. “You are talking about needing a lot of iron on the backside to handle the needs of the server to supply two to 16 desktops. All this adds up quickly and can easily swamp a datacenter.”

As for pricing complaints, VMware is used to hearing them and holds firm to the ‘you get what you pay for’ mantra, saying the management benefits are worth the price.

The company charges $150 per concurrent user plus additional costs for support, either Gold or Platinum levels. Both bundles include VMware Infrastructure Enterprise Edition for VDI (which consists of VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5) and the VMware Virtual Desktop Manager 2. The VMware VDI Starter Edition, which enables 10 virtual desktops, has a list price of $1,500. The VMware VDI Bundle 100 Pack, which enables 100 virtual desktops, has a list price of $15,000.

The market indicates a demand for desktop virtualization, as a number of other vendors also entered the desktop virtualization space including Sun Microsystems Inc., Citrix., Pano Logic Inc. and Symantec. Chen would argue that many customers come for reduction in hardware but stay for the management applications.

“Reducing hardware costs is not a reason to use VDI, it is management. We have customers who have seen 40% to 50% ROI in terms of management costs and the amount of time it frees up.”

Austin, Texas-based ClearCube announced today that its desktop virtualization software business is being spun-off into its own company, VDIworks.

VDIworks will provide the VDIworks Sentral Virtual Desktop Platform for desktop computing and virtual desktop management, which includes connection brokering, virtual machine, host and thin client management, load balancing, health and asset monitoring, inventory management, disaster recovery and support for back-end hardware and user access devices.

ClearCube will continue providing desktop computing products, including desktop virtualization software, PC Blades and thin client terminal servers.

VDIworks and ClearCube will operate seperately but under an OEM agreement whereby ClearCube will continue to market and promote the VDIworks software under the Sentral VDI Management Software brand, and the Sentral management software will still be part of ClearCube’s centralized desktop computing offerings. ClearCube customers will still get support in their current license agreements with ClearCube, and VDIworks will add OEM relationships with third-party vendors, said Rick Hoffman, former president of ClearCube and now president of VDIworks.

“Users should not notice any changes, because the support, features, benefits, etc. will all be the same,” said Hoffman.

VDIworks will receive seed funding from current ClearCube investors and will seek additional funding to support growth. About 35 research and development employees in the U.S. and Pakistan will also move to VDIworks.

Because ClearCube’s Chief Executive Officer is taking over VDIworks, ClearCube’s Chief Operating Officer Randy Printz has been promoted to president and CEO. Rick Hoffman will be joined on the VDIworks side by Chief Technology Officer Amir Husain.

Desktop virtualization is a popular vendor offering right now, with companies such as Sun Microsystems Inc., Citrix., Pano Logic Inc. and VMware Inc all offering a flavor of desktop virtualization, but users report hesitation in using it due to cost.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced this week it has added new features to its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure software, originally released at VMworld in September 2007, including Sun’s Virtual Desktop Connector (VDC).

Sun’s VDI 2.0 provides interfaces to PCs, mobile devices, and thin clients including Sun’s own Sun Ray thin client offering. With it, centralized desktops can be delivered through the LAN or WAN to Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X, Solaris or Linux on the desktop, which is fairly unique in the Windows-centric desktop market, said Chris Kawalek, Product Line Manager, Desktop & Virtualization Marketing, Sun Microsystems.

Sun’s VDC, meanwhile, is is more or less a connection broker that interfaces with ESX 3.5 and 3.0.x and Virtual Center Server 2.0.x and 2.5 (VMware infrastructure 3) to create pools of virtual machines that can be defined based on templates.

With Sun’s updated VDI offering, administrators can statically or dynamically assign users to specific VMs, either for a set number of days or indefinitely. Another feature is the ability to ‘reset’ end users’ virtual machines (VMs) if problems arise. For instance, if the user contracts a virus while on the web, the VM can be reset to a date before the issue occurred and operate as it did on that date, Kawalek said.

The tight integration with VMware virtualization software can be attributed to the OEM agreement Sun signed with VMware Inc. in February. Thus, with VDI 2.0, users can actively manage VMware virtual machines, but VMs from other vendors like Virtual Iron can only be statically created and assigned, Kawalek said.

Kawalek said Sun moved into the VDI space last year because it embodies Sun’s ‘the network is the computer’ message. Another reason? It’s the popular thing to do. “Everyone is very interested in centralizing their desktop environment, which is why vendors like Hewlett-Packard and VMware are in this space,” he said.

Sun’s VDI Version 2.0 became available March 18 at $149 per user, including one year of support. Sun Ray thin clients start at $249. Directions on how to install VDI 2.0 are available online, and a free trial can be downloaded from Sun’s website.

With virtualization adoption teetering on mainstream, I am sure it is difficult for VMware to find the balance between what to explain about the technology and what is considered common knowledge.

Judging by a show of hands, a lot of what the 40-or so IT admins who attended VMware Inc.’s Virtualization Seminar Series at the Hilton Hotel in Providence, RI Tuesday morning heard was the latter. The seminar was a low-level look at VMware technologies on the market and those coming down the pipeline. It also had some case studies supporting virtualization, and a snore-inducing spiel from their sponsor, data networking company Brocade.

The case study that seemed to be of most interest to attendees was about the technology team at IntelliRisk Management Corporation (IRMC), a company with call centers and clients all over the world, deploying VMware’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

Using VMware’s VDI, IRMC was able to centralize its global data center operations by giving their employees access to applications, operating systems, etc. via virtual desktops.

One unimpressed system administrator at the seminar asked, “And this is different from Citrix how?”

Peter Marcotte, VMware’s Systems Engineering manager, said the good old server based computing (SBC) environments from Citrix Systems, Inc., where each user connects to a remote desktop running on a Microsoft terminal server and/or a Citrix Presentation Server, doesn’t offer the kind of flexibility VDI does. He also said applications don’t run as well in SBC environments as they do in isolated virtual desktop machines.

Independent Technology Analyst and Blogger Brian Madden wrote an analysis of VDI and SBC that weighs their pros and cons and when to use each.

Madden wrote that VDI offers better performance from the users’ standpoint, it doesn’t have application compatibility issues, and offers better security than traditional SBC.

In the case of IRMC, they deployed virtual desktops and can add a new PC image in less than 10 minutes. All of the virtual desktops can be managed from one location through VirtualCenter. After deploying VDI, IRMC saw an annual return on investment (ROI) of 73%, with a payback period of 1.37 years, the case study shows.

On the flip side, Madden wrote that SBCs have the maturity advantage — it’s been around for a decade — and it is easy to manage.

“With SBC you can run 50 to 75 desktop sessions on a single terminal server or Citrix Presentation Server, and that server has one instance of Windows to manage. When you go VDI, your 50 to 75 users have 50 to 75 copies of Windows XP that you need to configure, manage, patch, clean, update, and disinfect. Bummer!” Madden blogged.

Of course, VMware’s Marcotte didn’t mention that Citrix announced its own VDI product, Citrix XenDesktop back in October 2007 to compete with VMware’s VDI offering.

The seminar was helpful to some people I am sure — there were questions here and there - but overall I am a bit annoyed because by definition, seminars are supposed to teach us something and I’m not sure this one accomplished that.

Additionally, I, unlike most attendees, who either left or used the time to catch up on emails via Blackberry, sat through Brocade’s commercial for their Advanced Fabric Services, expecting a “Live Customer Testimonial” to follow as scheduled, but that part of the program never happened.

Hearing an actual user talk about their experiences with virtualization is far more helpful to other users than seeing vendor slide presentations. Users could have asked about snags during deployment, positive results and gotten some good advice.

Hopefully other VMware seminars include the Live Customer Testimonials; it would make the time more worthwhile for attendees.

I recently received a press release from London-based TechNavio, the creator of a Web-based information and research tool, that outlines the top five virtualization trends. Here they are, along with my own thoughts on these trends:

1. Business process automation.
TechNavio’s take. “Virtualization is expected to speed up the wider movement toward business process automation and remote collaboration. The TechNavio findings appear to indicate that the market in general is expecting a major investment in this area within the next two to three years.”
My thoughts. On the subject of business process automation, if TechNavio means “scripting,” I can agree with this trend. SearchServerVirtualization.com contributor Andrew Kutz has received a few questions from readers about automation, which suggests that there are plenty of other IT pros with similar questions. Also, he increasingly writes tips about scripting for X or Y, often concerning disaster recovery or hot backups. Most recently I’ve seen questions about scripting virtual machines (VMs) to power on and off at a certain time.
Food for thought. If scripting VMs advances, what will happen to the number of system admins and data center managers needed to run a data center? Perhaps all you IT programmers should slow down the scripting process before you script yourself right out of a job!

On the subject of remote collaboration, I definitely agree with TechNavio. I wrote an article on emerging client-side desktop virtualization technologies. In response, I received comments from readers who said that they had found a surprising number of companies that are exploring client-side virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) technologies for implementation in 2008. I think it’s due time for VDI; just consider the number of stolen or misplaced laptops, or CDs that went missing in the mail containing personal information. . . .I don’t know about you, but identity theft certainly isn’t on my holiday wish list. And I certainly would appreciate company investment in this kind of technology, considering the increasing mobility of technology.

2. Network-delivered computing.
TechNavio’s take. “Virtualization is also expected to boost the move toward network delivered computing or what is being termed PC-over-IP. This in turn will place vendors such as Cisco, NEC and Sun at the heart of the market, but interestingly leaves the door open for a host of innovative start-ups.” <br>
My thoughts. I would agree here as well. My aforementioned article discusses vThere, which focuses on primarily providing client-side virtual desktops via their own (i.e., third-party) servers that a client notebook would connect to when opening the virtual desktop. During interviews, my subjects all mentioned the trend of software vendors moving to providing their software via virtual machine. We have already seen a few virtualization companies provide beta versions of newer software via VM. As virtualization continues to grow in adoption, I can easily see all kinds of independent software vendors providing their products via virtual machine download.

3. Legacy applications and virtualization.
TechNavio’s take. “As application virtualization speeds up, applications development and maintenance or ADM, vendors have a real opportunity to grow into a new market defined as optimizing legacy applications for virtualization.”
My thoughts. We haven’t focused much on application virtualization on SearchServerVirtualization.com and SearchVMware.com, so I don’t have an informed opinion on this subject. Readers, do you?

4. Small and midsized businesses (SMBs).
TechNavio’s take. “The biggest long-term opportunity for virtualization vendors lies in the SMB space, specifically end-to-end solutions that allow SMBs to outsource and virtualize their entire network.”
My thoughts. I disagree here. Clearly. there is opportunity and space for virtualization in the SMB market, but to say it’s the biggest long-term opportunity? That’s a stretch. I doubt that larger businesses, once virtualized, will stop virtualizing. I think that a more accurate statement would be that virtualization vendors should target SMBs to further extend virtualization.

5. Labor market and skills.
TechNavio’s take. “As the market for server virtualization heats up, finding people with the right skills is set to get harder. With this environment TechNavio predicts that there will be increased opportunities for IT services companies as well as for IT staffing solutions providers.”
My thoughts. I don’t know if I agree that finding people with the right skills will become more difficult; it depends on the IT workers and their drive to stay on top of certifications that prove their worth. (Cough, the VMware Certified Professional (VCP) exam, cough, cough.) And whenever technology advances, desired skill sets change, so this prediction isn’t all that impressive. As far as increased opportunities for IT services companies, yes. It’s easier to go to a business and say, “Get me a sys admin with a VCP stamp of approval!” than it is to shuffle through résumés looking for those who are VCPs. And I definitely think that those who have the right credentials will find themselves in increasing demand: So stay on top of what you’re worth salary-wise given the move toward virtualizing mission-critical servers. Just because your current company doesn’t realize your worth, it doesn’t mean that Company Y — which has more virtualized servers and a greater need for those with virtual environment management experience — doesn’t.

TechNavio’s press release also included a quote after these “top five trends.” Co-founder of Chicago-based Infiniti Research S. Chand (who conducted the research for this report) said, “Currently the biggest beneficiaries of server virtualization are the enterprise users whose businesses tend to be dependent on running compute-heavy, high availability, application intensive data centers. These include: ISPs, hosting and managed service providers, bank’s trading divisions, gaming, online retailers and the like.”

So if you are looking to get the most (read: more money) from your virtualization experience, check job offers with companies that deal with these types of services.

Today marks an host-oric day, as the first virtual desktops are ready in the lab for my most forward-thinking users (and, as temporary machines, any who happen to suffer hardware failure). As my company is a mid-sized firm, taking this plunge is a bit of “bleeding edge” for us, but it’s too promising to pass up. The early test environment was pretty basic - a few desktops with souped up memory, CentOS 4, VMware Server, and our XP build. First a side-note on CentOS - I love CentOS because it’s almost 100% binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. In fact, it’s compiled from their SRPMs, with the copyrighted materials (the logo, some artwork, etc.) removed. On the client-side, ThinStation or any of the other many thin-client linux distros meant to communicate via RDP will work just as well (perhaps better). The roots of this initiative lie in my wanting to have my XP desktop available from where I was — my Macbook Pro, My Freespire 2 desktop, or my Vista desktop. All have desktop virtualization on them, but since they don’t all have the “same” products, mounting a share somewhere wasn’t going to work — and performance might be a bit… underperforming.

The best route was to have it available via RDP. I also wanted to build virtual desktops rfor users. The result, to kill an old commercial’s memory, is that VMware got their peanut butter in my chocolate, or I got my chocolate in VMware’s peanut butter. Either way, I liked the results. It was simple enough to do, and it performed well under even the limted circumstances. Best of all, it’s not complicated to manage. ESX and VirtualCenter more than did the job (though I thinkg a fortune 500 would have need for enhanced management tools, if only for filtering and tracking users to desktops).

After that worked out well for me, I started trimming it back to a more common user-centric desktop build as opposed to the IT-Centric build, taking temporary desktop replacement as a start-in point. The big first was security, while limiting complexity ran a close second. Thanks to AD’s Group Policy handling profile and folder redirection, there’s really no perceivable difference between the user’s original computer and the server-hosted VD. When their PC is fixed, they get it back, and we move on to the next broken-box situation.

The VD solution proved its value there, beating our 2X application server thin-clients (which fared well, but less well than VDs because of the difference in user experience between a linux desktop running a full-screen browser and an XP PC). The next step is to see if we can make this permanent. So, a few IT-savvy first-adopter types are going to get some very old PCs with some very new tricks. I can’t wait…

Chris Wolf, Burton Group senior analyst, analyzed Citrix’s acquisition of XenSource in a recent Burton Group blog post. He sizes up the situation, saying:

“While having the technology is one thing, bringing it to market is an entirely separate issue. This is where the Citrix acquisition makes great sense for XenSource. Financially fueled by Citrix, XenSource now has the financial clout, sales, and channel resources to go after the large stake of unclaimed virtualization market share in the enterprise. Don’t get me wrong. This will not be easy, as Citrix and XenSource are competing against powerhouse vendors with strong sales, channel, and IHV partnerships. VMware, Microsoft, Red Hat, and Novell are well established in the enterprise, and are all looking to add to their share of the market. Virtual Iron has been making a lot of noise in the SMB space lately, and they should see the explosion of the XenSource sales channel as a serious threat.”

Wolf sees the acquisition as a win for Citrix and Xen and for users, too.

“In the coming months and years, we should expect to get enterprise-class virtualization technologies at lower costs, with more features, and a motivated group of vendors that are eager to push innovation to remain competitive.”

Read his blog in its entirety on the Burton Group Data Center Strategies blog.

IT professionals may wear many hats in their organizations, but we tend not to be known for our fashion sense.  To assist in that area, I’d like to cover one of the latest styles in virtualization: The return of the thin client.  Case in point: see Alex Barrett’s coverage of HP’s acquisition of thin-client vendor Neoware, Inc: Virtualization informs HP’s Neoware Acquisition.  It’s time for traditional fat desktops to start becoming even more self-conscious.  Of course, thin clients never really went away - they’ve been around since the popularitzation of the ”network computing”, which started in the late 90’s.  Lest any of you commit a social faux paus while strutting down your data center’s loading ramps, I wanted to point out some of the issues that prevented the predicted takeover of thin clients:

• Cheaper desktops:  Reducing hardware acquisition costs were a goal for thin client proponents.  As desktop computers hit the sub-$500 range, however, the cost advantages of using thin client computers became far harder to justfiy. 
• Fatter apps and OS’s: A while ago, I heard someone ask the most pertinent question I’d heard in years: “Is hardware getting faster faster than software is getting slower?”  The answer, my friends, seems to be “no”.  As hardware gets more capacity, OS’s and applications tend to swallow it up like a supermodel at a salad bar.
• Single points of failure:  Thin clients (and their users) rely on centralized servers and the network that allows access to them.  Failures in these areas mean major downtime for many users. 
• The Application Experience:  Remote desktop protocols could provide a basic user experience for the types of people that use a mouse to click on their password fields when logging on to the computer.  Single-task users adapted well to this model.  But what about the rest of us?  I’d like the ability to run 3-D apps and use all of my keyboard shortcuts.  And, I’d like to be able to use USB devices such as scanners and music players.
• Server-side issues:  Server-side platforms from Citrix, Microsoft, and other vendors had limitations on certain functionality (such as printing). 

So, is it possible for these super-skinny client computers to address these issues?  I certainly think it’s possible.  Server and network reliability has improved over the years, forming a good basis for reliability.  Thin clients are inexpensive, and server-side hardware and software has improved in usability features.  For example, Windows Server 2008’s Terminal Services feature provides the ability to run specific applications (rather than the entire desktop) using a remote connection.  And, multi-core processors that support large amounts of RAM help enable scalability.  Overall, thin clients are cheap dates, they’re more readily avaialble, and they’re less needy than in the past.  What IT admin wouldn’t like that?  Only time will tell if this relationship will last.

Oh, and one last fashion tip: Don’t throw away your old fat clients just yet.  Like so many other fads, they may be back in style sooner than you think.  Order a slice of cheesecake and think about that!

While browsing another blog, the famous virtualization.info, I came across a very interesting story of Parallels making an alpha code release of it’s new server-based product. As I mentioned in a slightly-off-topic post, my ears are perked because of the interest the Coherence has generated, with it’s seamless (almost Citrix-y) windows into the guest OS.

I’m really hoping to see what Parallels does with Coherence on the server level. While there are a plethora of ways to administer a heterogeneous server environment (ssh, rdp, vnc, mmc, e-i-e-i-o), Coherence in the mix of remote administration is an interesting proposal. How much further can it be taken - can it, instead of being host-based, become central-management-server based? Picture how Virtual Center allows remote administration of VMware virtual guest, from the virtual machine settings to the guests’ interfaces, plus all of the other settings involved. Add in a ONE-SCREEN management interface, with everything packed off to a Coherence Manager, and imagine how much simpler things can become. Application management tools that don’t work well over remote sessions, direct access to ini/conf/whatever files on a server without extra steps to get there, an organized toolset for administration that makes the mmc look tired… very interesting stuff.

Taking it to the next point, virtual desktops… Parallels supports DirectX and OpenGL (so does VMware’s Fusion, but I liked the beta of that much less than Parallels Desktop after putting them both through the ringer). That support makes VDI a lot close togetting over the hump of multimedia issues that bar it’s large scale adoption. Just as Citrix and other thin clients never reclaimed the desktop over PCs, I don’t doubt that virtual desktops will remain a niche market. I do think, however, that remote-coherence has the same opportunity as Citrix’s ICA (and competitors products as well) to be an excellent value-add for remote application deployment, right up to and including a full desktop. As it stands now, we have a number of users here who have very old applications that don’t work well under Windows XP, yet they just can’t go away (some are government-mandated apps), so we use VMware Player to dish them up in a virtual OS. I’d like to use a Coherence-like product instead, to eliminate a lot of the headache associated with end-user education and change management. To take it one logical step further, I’d like to use a Coherence-like server-based product, to keep those virtual machines off the local desktops and under my department’s management and deployment. If it means buying an Apple XServe or two to support it, so be it. We’re a mixed Windows, Linux, and BSD shop as it is, so that wouldn’t be a big deal in overhead and support. I imagine that’s the case in many environments.

I’m hoping for a sneak peak, being the Parallels geek that I am.