When I made my 2011 predictions, I didn’t hold out much hope for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). I don’t think that the upsides in moving to VDI–fast ROI, reduction in operations expenses, security enhancements, etc.–are enough for IT shops to change what they are doing. And I mean any type of VDI, from the traditional remote desktop that Citrix and Microsoft have offered for years to the newer VDI products that run as virtual machines on a desktop or off removable media, some of which we reviewed in 2009. One of the drivers, as Forrester Analyst Andre Kindness notes on Twitter, is that bring-your-own computer is forcing companies to VDI. I disagree, not because you can’t use VDI in that situation–if you are going to support bring-your-own laptop, then VDI would be preferred for company apps–but because the costs associated with supporting bring-your-own laptop and transitioning to VDI for most companies are too high compared with the organizational benefit that would be gained.
Network Computing