Server virtualization has become so mainstream that I feel confident nearly every single organization has at least one server running some type of hypervisor platform in their data center today. But for some reason, the virtual desktop hasn't caught on in the same way as its bigger sibling -- at least not in corporate America.
For the past few years we've been told this could be the year of VDI. While that hasn't happened yet, we did see a lot of events in 2012 that put VDI and desktop virtualization on the map. Here are seven of the biggest desktop virtualization stories of the last year.
1. No shortage of key acquisition news
In 2012 there were four key acquisitions announced in the desktop virtualization market.
In April, Dell made a lot of noise when it acquired Wyse. The move gave Dell an advantage in the VDI hardware market because it brought on board the highly respected Wyse thin client and zero client devices that are compatible with many different virtual desktop software providers. The acquisition vaulted Dell alongside one of its biggest competitors in this segment of the market: Hewlett-Packard.
In May, while at the Citrix Synergy show in San Francisco, Citrix rocked the desktop virtualization market by announcing it had acquired one-time competitor Virtual Computer, giving Citrix an additional advantage in the client hypervisor market. Citrix said it would integrate Virtual Computer's NxTop technologies into the newly announced Citrix XenClient Enterprise Edition. Virtual Computer focused on Xen-based client hypervisor technology, so the acquisition seemed a natural fit. Citrix was already an investor in the company, oddly enough.
...MORE
Read more about the acquisitions in 2012, and find out the other six identified stories.
Click to read this InfoWorld Virtualization Report article.