Beware the myths of desktop and client virtualization, on key issues from security to cost, says Forrester's Natalie Lambert. Here, she breaks down five issues that could trip up your client virtualization effort.
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Top Five Myths That IT Believes About Client Virtualization
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Blair Christensen Wed, 2009-08-05 09:56
#5 kind of puts a severe damper on the whole thing, doesn't it. What are the chances of getting software vendors (especially Microsoft) to revise their licensing policies?
Carl Krueger Mon, 2009-08-10 14:50
I agree with all of Natalie's points. In all of our (RAZAR Technologies) discussions with potential clients regarding local desktop virtualization (we call it Multi-User PC Virtualization), we find that our solution will not handle the entire enterprise. We tell them this upfront. There are places it fits and those that it does not. This is also why our technology works with other "thin-client" solutions to help find an even stronger ROI.
However, the point on the ROI depends on how you look at it. We don't chase cycles that aren't already looking at a refresh on their desktop systems in schools, call centers, training facilities, etc. Therefore, our ROI is typically 3-6 months because they are going to buy the hardware anyway.
I offer an example. A public school district is buying 1,000 PC's to do a refresh on some of their schools computer labs. If they buy 1 PC for every 5 they now have, the savings is significant - even with a slightly larger PC and additional video cards to support the same number of users with no degradation in performance. And that doesn't include the tremendous power savings, maintenance savings and the overall green impact of the solution.
That being said, I think every point is a valid consideration for organizations looking to implement a thin client strategy.
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