We also saw new advancements in both the application virtualization space and the profile virtualization space. Desktop virtualization is a completely different animal that server virtualization: there are more moving parts to deal with and storage is a big issue when it comes to figuring out where user data (user personality) lives. Plus you have to be concerned about maintenance and dispatching of various applications that are typically on a desktop vs. a server environment.

As mentioned above, one of the key design areas that is challenging for a VDI environment is storage. Managing the capacity and the storage required for VDI can be difficult and can also negatively affect performance. Often when organizations go down the VDI path, 99 percent of the time storage is the bottleneck. So it’s absolutely crucial that you make sure that you size data appropriately.

Other big advancements in 2009 were on the display protocol side—again making a use case out of the needs of multimedia users: flash, videos, and graphics intensive applications. For example, we saw the introduction of VMware’s PcoIP protocol in software because it allows high res apps to be displayed properly within a VDI environment.

As for the cloud, VDI will help simplify the matter of moving to the new computing paradigm. In order to access anywhere, anytime computing, you have to have some sort of interface for users to make it a reality. So VDI can deliver on that since it breaks ties to a physical device. And with VDI you have the familiar experience across many ways of access: home, VPN, personal or corporate laptop—your worktop always looks the same.

Aside from technology benefits, VDI can be a challenge for business operations. With VDI, your desktop, server, network, storage, and security teams need to all buy into the VDI philosophy and all need to work closely together which can be difficult if they aren’t used to doing that.

Of course the biggest roadblock to VDI is cost. When you calculate ROI & TCO, you have to make sure you’re looking at the big picture and that you’re using the right numbers. As for the big picture, you have to look a little past just the simple capex cost. For example, let’s say you have a desktop refresh project and you need to buy 4000 desktops. If you take the money and deploy it in a VDI environment, you’d be lucky to break even.

So you have to look at things outside of hardware and software. Look at manpower, management, power consumption. Factor in some things you’re not used to. Ask how much it costs your company to manage even one physical desktop over the course of the year. It can be difficult to get a valid number out of thin air, so be sure to let GreenPages know if we can help you analyze your environment to make the appropriate ROI and TCO cost justifications.

For a deep dive into the topic, listen to the webinar: 2010: A VDI Odyssey. New Advances. New Technologies. and learn more about which VDI options are suited to which environments and what roadblocks may be standing in the way of large scale VDI adoption.

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