With successful server virtualization projects under their belts, IT professionals are now turning their attention to user-centric computing and desktop virtualization. Desktop virtualization promises to yield substantial cost savings and dramatically improve IT resource utilization.
Desktop virtualization can also optimize desktop management, facilitating tasks associated with adding, deleting, updating and patching applications; strengthening security; and centralizing user data to protect it through consistent, reliable backup.
Migrating to virtual desktops, however, has proven to be a time-consuming, costly and risky undertaking in many enterprises. Assessing thousands of computers and their users to create profiles that help identify good virtualization candidates can be an overwhelming task. Developing a rational migration plan is difficult because IT lacks visibility into how users and desktop applications consume such resources as network bandwidth, storage, CPU and memory.
Desktop virtualization complicates Application Readiness processes. In addition to supporting legacy and MSI formats, IT must now prepare and convert desktop applications for the virtual world. In many cases, this means supporting multiple virtual formats to accommodate diverse environments and enterprise needs.
IT organizations need powerful solutions that enable them to embrace user-centric computing and get virtual desktop projects on track while keeping migration costs in check. A viable solution helps IT assess the virtualization readiness of computers, users and applications, and develop a data-driven plan for a successful transition to virtual desktops.