Will Client Hypervisors Drive the Next Generation Desktop?

Whatever your enterprise desktop issue VDI is often hailed as the answer. The next generation desktop will be virtual. Mind, while it’s not possible to say that no one got fired for recommending VDI, taking the compute power away from the end-device and putting it back in the data centre has been a task that has struggled to gain wide adoption.

A source of complexity for VDI is that, in order to deliver virtual desktops there needs to be an Infrastructure: unlike server virtualization, VDI can’t do away with end devices. We are undoubtedly in an era where it is not just about the PC: other devices are available. But the PC isn’t dead; PCs and laptops don’t seem to be sexy any more in light of smartphone and tablet mania, but they remain the workhorse that meets user needs when content creation is our main task. The tablet, smartphone, and other screens can deliver purpose driven tasks will also become important products in our digital life, but will most likely be used for data consumption. So, while PCs may have lost their position as the darling of the computer world, they continue to be important to a range of users and organisations. As Mark Twain once said, and I paraphrase his quote, “The news of the PC’s death is premature.“
Yet, “how to manage those PCs?” is still nagging question.
A Client side hypervisor is a technology that has grew in stature in 2011. Vendors are liberating client hypervisors from their security focused niche markets to allow them to be used for wider enterprise deployments; utilising centralisation of management and resources to employ the end-devices’ compute power rather than large data centre resources. Virtualisation Desktops with infrastructure with a small ‘i’.
In determining how to provide the next generation desktop: where can client hypervisors fit, what are the main options available and which steps need to be taken to introduce client hypervisors into your environment? Are there any pitfalls?
In this Virtualization Practice’s whitepaper –  Will Client Hypervisors Drive the Next Generation Desktop? – we look to follow on our BrightTalk webinar on the topic to give you a summary of what benefits current Client Hypervisor solutions can bring to your enterprise. We also take a short overview of vendor offerings available. These vendors include Citrix, Microsoft, MokaFive, Virtual Bridges and Virtual Computer.