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2012 – The Year VDI Adoption Goes Vertical

Contributed Article by Lee Caswell, Founder, CSO of Pivot3

Many virtualization enthusiasts assumed the adoption curve for desktop virtualization would be identical to server virtualization. Staggering predictions from leading analysts forecasted that desktop virtualization would sweep across IT regardless of vertical market. Those forecasts never materialized because the underlying assumptions did not recognize three important differences between server and desktop virtualization benefits and impacts. While desktop virtualization is a powerful, disruptive technology, the differences in how its benefits are realized will result in a vertical adoption strategy that will become very evident in 2012.

VDI adoption will accelerate across security-conscious verticals

Server virtualization followed a horizontal adoption curve because every data center regardless of industry could realize immediate hardware consolidation benefits of savings in power, cooling, and rack space. The management benefits to IT of virtualized servers, such as high-availability, security, and adaptive infrastructure were secondary and these are still being refined and developed today. However, desktop virtualization delivers benefits in exactly the opposite order. Virtual desktops are easier to manage than their physical counterparts because of tighter security, lower support costs, and higher availability but consolidation savings that drive the financial ROI have been secondary. This stark difference in how virtual desktop value is realized means that industries, or vertical markets, that value the manageability - and particularly the improved security - from virtual desktops will continue to lead the adoption of virtual desktops. Financial services, government, healthcare, and education markets have explicit risk profiles for tampering and malware. These industries will continue to be on the leading edge of virtual desktop adoption where security concerns outweigh simple IT consolidation benefits.

VDI adoption will follow vertical market use of new client computing devices

Most end-users have no inkling that server virtualization is deployed in the data center. IT hums along with new virtual servers without ever involving the user community. However virtual desktops directly affect user computing which has slowed adoption across horizontal markets that continue to use legacy PCs. In these horizontal industries, the leading competitor to a virtual desktop will simply be to stay the course and look for next generation operating systems, such as Windows 8, to add more security and management features. VDI adoption is much more prevalent across vertical markets with a high percentage of mobile workers. These markets are much more likely to adopt new non-PC client devices, such as tablets, thin clients, and even smartphones that require access to legacy applications. Tablets are being adopted across vertical markets such as healthcare, shipping and retail to improve the responsiveness, accessibility and flexibility of mobile workers. For these markets, IT can realize direct management benefits from desktop virtualization such as centralized application delivery, non-persistent desktop control and operating system support. These management benefits are more tangible than consolidation benefits since the reality is that the end user world looks anything like consolidation to IT groups that need to support this changing mobile workforce without scaling up internal resources.

VDI solutions will evolve to meet the smaller scale needs of vertical customers

2012 will witness the evolution of virtual client computing infrastructure that is better suited to the vertical markets that most value it. Top upcoming VDI verticals such as healthcare, education and state and local government require a virtual desktop infrastructure that is cost-effective at small scale, can be sized on demand, and that can be managed with today's IT staff. Simply repurposing data center servers, SANs and switches will not meet the budget and management constraints of the very verticals that are most attracted to VDI. For these markets, a new model of infrastructure is required and we are already seeing movements in this direction with the VMware Rapid Desktop Program and Citrix's VDI-in-a-Box. For the computer historians reading this, the evolution will look like the early days of the LAN where large corporate LANs were too expensive and complex for smaller businesses to deploy. This opened the door for companies like ArtiSoft and eventually Novell to create a new category for a customer base that valued management benefits of a new technology needed for an evolving connected workforce. We see 2012 as creating this type of opportunity in VDI.

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About the Author

Lee Caswell, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer

Lee is an experienced marketing executive in the storage, networking, and digital video markets. Prior to founding Pivot3, Lee was EVP Marketing and Business Development at VMware and held a series of senior management roles at Adaptec (ADPT) ending as VP and General Manager of Adaptec's $350M Storage Solutions Group.  Prior to Adaptec, Lee was VP Sales and Marketing at Parallax Graphics which introduced the first real-time video capture products for the video surveillance market. He spent the first five years of his career in management programs at GE. Lee has a BA from Carleton College and an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College.