Virtualization Cuts The Fat Out Of Desktop Infrastructure

With desktop PC virtualization, a PC workload can be one of multiple virtual machines sitting on a hardware server, either in the customer's data center or at a remote site. The user has some type of computing device, such as a traditional desktop or laptop PC, or even a desktop appliance, which is a thin client to which peripherals, such as a monitor and keyboard, are attached.

Virtual desktop technology is on the verge of cutting much of the fat associated with desktop PCs in much the same way that server virtualization has started reducing midrange businesses' server overhead, only on a larger scale.

A much larger scale, according to George Loridas, South Central territory manager for Ryjac Computer Solutions Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider.

The need for virtual desktop PCs in the midmarket will be huge, Loridas said. "Look at the potential for virtualization. Everyone's doing storage virtualization. Everyone's doing server virtualization. But if you look at the number of PCs in a company compared to the number of servers, it's 10-to-1, 50-to-1, 100-to-1," he explained.

Loridas, whose company works with desktop virtualization technology from VMware Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., and Provision Networks, which was acquired by Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Quest Software Inc., said that desktop virtualization can be very attractive to midrange customers for a variety of reasons.

For instance, he said, the thin clients used with virtual desktops can consume under 10 watts compared to 350 watts for a typical PC. That can mean a difference in power usage of about $50 per PC per year, he said. "If a company has 250 PCs, times $50, that's $12,500 per year in electricity savings."

Because the desktop PC image—including the operating system and applications—is encased in a file, virtual desktop PCs can be provisioned on-demand and can follow users no matter which device they use to access their applications, Loridas said. And updating and patching those images is much easier than traditional desktop PCs, he added.

Operating system and application licensing costs are lower as there is no need to have a license for a PC that's not in use. "If someone quits, their PC sits idle, but still has a Windows license allocated to it," Loridas said. "With virtual PCs, if a PC is not in use, the licenses are returned to the 'tool crib.' The next guy who signs on takes an unused license."

Desktop virtualization is just as important in the midmarket as it is in the enterprise, Loridas emphasized. "An enterprise has 20 people on its IT staff," he said. "A midmarket company has only one or two overworked people."

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