| Desktop Virtualisation: Making PCs Manageable |
| Saturday, 16 September 2006 by Michel Roth | |||
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"The promise of desktop virtualisation technology is to centralise applications at the data centre to make them easier to manage and provision -- stretching hardware resources and keeping nagging software conflicts to a minimum in the bargain. In some cases, the same technology helps accomplish all three, bringing greater control and flexibility to IT without users mourning the loss of "their" beloved desktops." "At first blush, desktop virtualisation sounds a lot like terminal services such as those provided by Citrix Systems, where servers run the applications and give users remote access. All the user's terminal or PC does is present the updated screen display and permit input via keyboard and mouse. Desktop virtualisation, on the other hand, is a new way of delivering the individual PC environment that white-collar workers demand and love. In essence, servers host an entire desktop environment specific to each user." "Virtualisation at the application host server can make thin clients more efficient to deploy, but many organisations are wedded to having real PCs at users' disposal despite the support costs. Desktop streaming is emerging as one of the most efficient ways to support this model without incurring the usual bloated desktop support costs." "A growing number of vendors -- including Ardence, Propero, Stream Theory and Wyse -- offer desktop streaming software that provisions the entire desktop environment from a server to a desktop PC (or thin client)." "Altiris, AppStream, and Microsoft (through its recent acquisition of Softricity) have pushed the concept to the next level, streaming applications rather than a complete desktop environment. This allows greater flexibility in what is provisioned, because IT can create a basic operating system image and then individual images for each application, and combine them as needed on the fly. You don't need a separate desktop image for each combination of applications." Read the entire article here.
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