From Massimo Re Ferre’: Why Desktop Virtualization is not as easy as Server Virtualization. He brings up a number of barriers to thin client computing that have remained true over the years. I do think that this is the psychological one is the most important — ever since Apple II’s and IBM PC’s began sneaking into corporations, they’ve been my personal computer. Even if the end user experience with thin client computing is fine, it still feels like the IT department is taking power away from me, the end user. All that being said, however, everything I hear says full steam ahead for VDI deployments.
– End-user Experience. There is a
big difference between virtualizing a server and virtualizing a desktop
from an end-user perspective. You, as a CIO / Sys Admin, can virtualize
a server or even the whole server farm and no one at your company would
even notice it. It’s just your own decision to do that or not to. In a
desktop virtualization scenario, as soon as you start deploying the
first thin client you are opening it up to the whole company.
Immediately you have exposed your decision to dozens / hundreds /
thousands of other individuals that, for good reasons or political
reasons, will start to challenge you. Good reasons might be technical
limitations that you have to compromise with as of today, limitations
for which a thin client can sometimes hardly cope, in terms of local
device attachment support / multimedia video performance / flexibility
/ off-line capabilities etc etc, with a standard desktop deployment. I
can assure you that no single "average end-user" would ever realize
that their mail system in the back is now running on a vm whereas
yesterday it was physical; however even the more "IT-candid end-user"
would understand that he / she is using Outlook from a "little box
where I cannot even attach my iPOD anymore" as opposed to the PC he /
she was used to! And there is when political problems start.
