Are we really here? With SaaS, virtual storage, and now virtual computers becoming prevalent it's a wonder we can keep track of who is where. But as we report elsewhere, the trend to centralize equipment, data, and maintenance tasks is continuing to expand. In many ways it reminds me of the the mainframe world where data and processing are centralized, providing access only via remote terminals. This article from eChannelLine points out that even the PC may become a virtual commodity.

Time ripe for Virtual PCs?
By Paul Weinberg, courtesy of eChannelLine

We've seen false alarms in this space before, but now virtual PCs -- thin clients -- could start selling because of server consolidation, concerns about security and the high cost of enterprise hardware upgrades to support the adoption of the Microsoft Vista operating system.

"We see enterprises looking at the potential of using virtual machines for hosting virtual desktops, stated John Sloan, senior research analyst, Info-Tech Research Group.

But he also cautioned that "this is still early days [for virtual desktops] and I would think of it as more of an emerging trend, not something that is going to take over the world."

Sloan might be cautious because earlier predicted booms in thin client sales (the term virtual PCs was not used then) have fallen flat. "Thin clients solutions often do not fly. One of the reasons, from the users' perspective is that they seem to be getting something less than what they are used to."

Adoption, he stated, could happen this time in organizations following a consolidation of x86 servers and the setting up of multiple virtual machines running on blade servers. In this scenario desktop PCs are replaced by virtual PCs that have access to virtual applications.

This is exactly what Hewlett-Packard has in mind with its consolidated client infrastructure product which includes management software to run the virtual machines from the data centre.

"IT managers have complete control over all of the data, all of the hardware, which is now stored at the data centre, and all of the data stored on a storage area network," stated Phil Smith, product marketing manager in commercial desktops at Hewlett-Packard Canada "So it definitely increases the overall performance and viability of the platform, because if a PC goes down, all you need to do now is log off a PC and log it back on again, and you get a new PC, and you will be up and running in a couple of seconds."

Smith said he anticipates corporate clients replacing their desktop PCs with virtual PCs because individual employees at their desks do not always need all that computing power.
Another motivation for organizations to buy virtual PCs or thin clients rather than full desktops is that it might be a less expensive way to conduct a hardware upgrade under the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, stated Amy Wohl, president of Wohl Associates.

She observed that many PCs in corporate offices are a few years old and they generally lack enough memory, storage and processor speed to make Vista work.

Wohl was one pundit who did predict an upsurge in thin client sales back in 1999/2000 (which subsequently did not happen) after doing some research for a vendor client. Understandably; so she expressed some hesitancy to get on any new bandwagon this time. This time she put her comments in context. "Thin clients themselves are not much cheaper, given how cheap PCs have become; but managing them can save money and they can often be run with software being shared between multiple occasional users if the license terms permit."

Of course, today's virtual PC would be a "richer and faster" experience for the user today at the desktop in terms of what is accessible from the corporate network than what might have been case with earlier versions of dumb terminals, stated Richard Ptak, a principal and industry analyst at Ptak, Noel & Associates.

Ptak also suggested that the advent of third party providers like software as a service are making customers more comfortable with the notion of offloading some of the computing demand from their own internal IT departments.

Hardware vendors like HP are keen on virtual PCs or thin clients because of potential sales in a saturated hardware market, stated Ptak. But he is not sure if the IT infrastructure in many organizations is capable of managing virtual desktops from the data centre. "Is the infrastructure environment robust enough to support that at the level of reliability that you want? In my opinion, it is not."

Security looms in any argument favoring virtual PCs, stated Warren Shiau, senior associate and lead analyst in IT research at the Strategic Counsel.

"On the hardware side thin clients pose less of a risk than a laptop or desktop. On the data side there is less risk because there are no locally stored data/files/documents."

But like Ptak, Shiau also noted that the enterprise infrastructure has to be there to support virtual PCs. "On the network side I think the risk is the same and is dependent upon the user organization's identity and access management controls and systems."

This article summary appears courtesy eChannelLine.com. Please Click Here to open a new window and read the complete article.