
Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2016. Read them in this 8th Annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Saad Hussain, CEO, VDIworks
2016 Predictions for the VDI space and its next evolutionary step
2015 comes to an end and what a year it has been for
virtualization industry. With megatrends like hyperconvergence redefining the
landscape and bringing more players to the field, the VDI industry has seen its
share of growth across the planet. As we step into 2016, a lot of the initial
momentum of innovation gained during this year will begin to mature throughout
the next one. The following are key areas where we predict the VDI industry to witness
even more growth & progress.
4K Resolution in
Virtualization will Spur Greater Adoption
VMware recently announced support for 4k monitors in its
Horizon View 6.2 environment. While 1080p monitors are currently the trend,
having 4 million pixels instead of the 2 million that 1080p offers is extremely
attractive from a user-experience angle. The result is sharper and crisp images
along with the ability to use larger monitors at 3840x2160 resolution.
The element of graphics-intensive workflow is gaining steam
everywhere. Take healthcare's example where physicians have increasingly begun
to rely on high-quality imaging to make better decisions for patients.
Similarly the gaming industry where users constantly demand the ‘ultimate
gaming experience' in terms of graphics.
The introduction of 4K support for virtual desktops will
remove the user-experience impediment for a lot of enterprises that always
wanted to leverage VDI's benefits but could not compromise on graphics
requirements. NVIDIA, a leader in the graphics space, leads the pack in terms
of innovation.
The NVIDIA GRID 2.0 technology extends 4k support and
extremely rich graphics across three editions. Virtual PC, Virtual Workstation,
and Workstation Extended all offer IT managers the ability to assign required
amounts of graphics memory and customized graphics profiles for each virtual
desktop user. The company is actively pursuing partnerships with other key
players to make graphics-intensive VDI a widespread reality. This market
traction will eventually lead to wider benefits realization and adoption of
VDI, especially for the growing mobile workforce in every industry that
requires seamless user-experience on the go.
However,
the adoption of 4k will face some early hiccups. While manufacturers might be
trying to get consumers excited about Ultra HD resolution, it cannot happen
without powerful compression technology known as High Efficiency Video Coding
or HEVC. To that effect, companies that hold patents in this area are planning
to cash them significantly as the 4K wave rises.
One
such company is HEVC Advance LLC, which is in talks with key players like GE,
Dolby, and Philips to bring them on as licensors. From mobile streaming to home
entertainment systems, the company expects to generate around $40 million in
licensing fees. Ultimately, this cost will be passed on to the end-user,
resulting in prohibition to adoption in the early stages. Eventually, we do expect
these costs to diminish as other video compression technology players will
enter the market and drive prices down competitively.
Linux VDI Will Rise in
Popularity
Linux virtual desktops are rising in popularity, driven by
the widespread adoption of free applications like OpenOffice. The notion of
being able to avoid licensing costs associated with suites like MS Office,
especially in the case of thousands of employees, is quite appealing.
At the vForum China in 2014, VMware announced its forays into
VDI solutions for enterprise Linux desktops. In July of this year, Citrix
announced the release of the Enterprise
and Platinum editions of Linux
Virtual Desktop 1.0 for XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6. Entering into the Linux VDI space by these two giants clearly signals
rising customer demand. Whether its GUI remoting, accessing Linux apps from
anywhere, or simply enabling VDI benefits to Linux enterprise users, the market
need is very much present.
However, the adoption rates are likely to be higher in
Central America & BRIC regions (Brazil, Russia, India & China). Larger
deployments have come to light from these areas. The regional government of the
Tamil Nadu region in India deployed 100,000 Linux desktops in its schools to
save on Windows licensing. La Gendarmerie
Nationale, the French National Police, has shifted 72,000 PCs from Windows
to Linux in efforts to save at least $2.2 million per year.
While
the bigger names might be stepping up their Linux game now, smaller entities
such as VDIworks have been offering Linux-based VDI solutions for quite some
time. With support from
mainstream players in the virtualization space, Linux-based VDI is definitely
going to see growth in 2016.
The Disruption Called
"Containers" Will Continue to Evolve
Some go as far as calling it
Cloud 2.0, but it might be a bit early for that. However, containers have
continued to show promise and commanded significant spotlight at VMworld 2015.
Docker, a ‘unicorn startup'
valued at $1 billion is widely regarded as the leader in this space. Their created
their container technology almost two years ago but it was really this year
that almost every major vendor in the cloud ecosystem announced some level of
integration or support.
Giants like VMware are closely
following the containerization trend and announced some major solutions at
VMworld. The vSphere Integrated Containers product is for those who want to run
legacy VMs and containers side by side at the vSphere level. It supports
integration with key players in the container space such as Docker & Kubernetes.
The VMware Photon Platform is for SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) organizations
that run cloud-native applications at larger scales. Containerization has grown
to the extent that the first ever Container World 2016 event will take place in
the Silicon Valley. Attendees & speakers include experts from companies
such as IBM & Google.
Parallel to the rise of
containerization, the VDI industry saw a lot of consolidation this year. 2X
Software was acquired by closs-platform solutions leader Parallels, while
NComputing's core assets were acquired by ZeroDesktop. Also, key players including
VERDE VDI & client-side VDI star Moka 5 simply faded away, providing critical
lessons for the industry.
From this point onwards, VDI will primarily
be the domain of entities providing containerization or server-side VDI
solutions. Albeit, containerization makes sense for companies that need to run a
mere 2-3 apps in the container. For those who needed cost-effective access to
the typical 10+ apps, virtual desktop solutions will remain the most strategic
option.
Containerization will also bring App
Streaming and Brokering to the front. The whole Operating System becomes
overkill and containerization will enable servers to better scale applications
for user demands. A shell around a list of applications is all a user would
need along with their centralized/cloud storage.
The "Bring Your Own
Device" trend Will Scale Significantly
Research & consulting firm IDC forecasted this year that the
American mobile worker population will grow to 105.4 million mobile workers by
2020. Eventually, mobile workers will account for nearly 70% of the total U.S.
workforce. (Source: IDC)
The catalyst behind the trend's growth is two-fold. On one
hand, the affordability of mobile devices continues to increase. The latest
devices with power to run business applications are growingly becoming
available to consumers all across the US. Additionally, VDI solutions with
enhanced security capabilities have led to wider acceptance from enterprises. Workers
accessing workplace information on their personal devices is not worrisome
anymore.
The sectors likely to adopt BYOD the most will include manufacturing,
construction, retail and healthcare. These hold the largest concentration of
workers with job descriptions that entail a significant percentage of remote or
field tasks. Within these 4 areas, healthcare will likely take the lead as healthcare
professionals at all levels increase the use of mobile devices in medical duties.
Hyperconvergence will
Witness Hyper-Growth
The hyperconverged infrastructure space saw major traction
this year. The idea of having the compute, storage and networking bundled into
one easily deployable box has IT leaders putting together cases for approval
everywhere.
The fact that hyperconvergence provides opportunity for enterprises
to strategically integrate their infrastructure into one ensures easier implementation,
manageability, and most of all economic benefits. Amidst tighter IT budget
environments, hyperconvergence will not only continue to grow but also become
the standard in the longer run.
From VMware to Cisco to Dell, everyone is gearing up with
newer and more innovative hyperconverged offerings to cement their share in
this hotly contested space. This market will only heat up further in 2016.
VDIworks'
Virtual Desktop Solution (VDP) is strategically positioned to play a key role in
the hyperconverged space. The VDI management suite is hypervisor-agnostic,
allowing it to work with any vendor. This enables enterprises to choose
disparate storage, network or hypervisor solutions and seamlessly combine them
into a deployable solution. VDIworks has partnerships with key players in the
hyperconverged industry, including Pure Storage, Tintri & Nimble Storage.
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About the Author
Saad
Hussain, CEO of VDIworks, brings the vision and leadership to extend
the company's position as an innovative solution provider in the fast
growing global VDI market.
Saad brings over 7 years of experience in business and management, product development and marketing. Saad
holds a Masters Degree in Information Systems from the School of
Business, University of Manchester UK and a Bachelors degree in Computer
Sciences from LUMS, Pakistan.