VMTN Blog

EMC's Chuck Hollis on VDI. Link: Chuck's Blog: VDI -- The Red Hot Discussion.

I've never seen anything like this in the industry. ... Just when you thought the server-oriented ESX party was raging, over the last 6-12 months the VDI discussion has become extremely interesting, especially to larger organizations who are seeing the potential to save money, deliver better user experiences, improve security and so on.

If you've been around the industry for any length of time, periodically the thin client discussion comes around.   Please, set aside your cynicism for just a moment -- this time it's different.

Previously, it's been an IT-driven thing.  All the benefits accrued to IT, and few (if any) to the knowledge workers who had to use the stuff.  There were some nasty compromises that limited thin-client effectiveness.

With VDI, users get clear benefits. 

It's a full experience with no compromises - an XP Pro desktop is an XP Pro desktop -- it's very hard to detect any meaningul differences. They get the ability to potentially work on any device (home, office, etc.) and get a full and consistent desktop experience -- no schlepping files around, etc. ...

Don't over-optimize the environment for cost savings.  I've talked to more than a few IT organizations that were trying to get the very last pennies out of cost savings, at the expense of an improved user experience. ...

 

And, surprisingly, many of the policies around desktop usage might be re-thought at the same time.  Like access from outside the firewall, for example.  Or supporting consultants and other business partners using internal applications.  A lot can potentially change here -- and for the good.

Quite humbly, I've never seen anything like this before ...

He also talks about some of the case studies on our site from a storage guy's perspective. A good read, as is his whole blog. Also check out the VMware Communities VDI Community for more discussion.