By Victor Thu, Director of Product Marketing, End-User Computing, VMware
Today at vForum China, VMware announced that it is beginning to work on a VDI solution for enterprise Linux desktops.
Depending on which analyst report you read, most estimate that Linux desktops as an everyday go-to system for users is a small percentage of the total desktop market share. So why we are actively working on supporting Linux as a VDI workload?
The demand from our enterprise customers have always been there and it got louder when VMware acquired Desktone in October 2013 since the Desktone DaaS platform supports Linux VDI. Since then, there have been a number of customers who have been working closely with VMware to help refine what it means to have Linux virtual desktops in their environment.
Most of these customers have a group of users whose primary desktops are Linux but because these groups are usually small, the IT teams have not invested in technology to manage them. Furthermore, Linux users are a special technical bunch who can typically troubleshoot issues on their own.
However, security breaches are a concern with security and compliance becoming top of mind. The need to secure Linux desktops and ensure regulatory compliance are critical elements that businesses simply cannot ignore.
Linux virtual desktops can offer the same flexibility and benefits that Windows users enjoy such as improved security, greater mobility and the overall benefits of the cloud. The mobile-cloud era promises a device agnostic and operating system agnostic world where content can be accessed from anywhere, and we are moving another step closer to realizing this promise for our customers with this future solution.
A technology preview of the VMware virtual desktop for Linux solution is expected in 2015.
VMware truly means it when we say we want to provide a Secure Virtual Workspace for Working at the Speed of Life. We are executing on that vision by including support for Linux virtual desktops and building a flexible platform that enables IT to unify all their end-user computing needs.
