Desktop Virtualisation: The Essential Guide

By: TechTarget ComputerWeekly.com

Type: Editorial Resource Guide

Desktop virtualisation, or virtual desktop infrastructure, has come of age, partly thanks to shifts in workplace practices. Employees are increasingly working remotely and need full access to corporate systems. It is often inconvenient to use the corporate laptop but the user still needs access to the systems offsite.

This has been the traditional use case, but as devices such as the iPad and Android tablets have grown in popularity, IT leaders have faced the dilemma of providing continued access to corporate applications, many of which still require a Windows client.

Modern desktop virtualisation enables the user to “run” applications on whatever device they use, so long as there is a suitable VDI client.

Over time, VDI companies have provided a richer multimedia experience on the remote device, such as graphics acceleration and sound, giving the user a better overall experience.

In the Forrester Wave report for server-based virtual desktops in 2015, the analyst noted: “The more latency there is between the client device and the datacentre, the more lag the user will experience with common activities. Additionally, common use cases such as watching a video or using graphics-rich applications, can consume 10 to 20 times more bandwidth than when using typical word processing or enterprise client/server applications in a VDI session.”

Therefore, fast bandwidth is essential, which renders the effectiveness of VDI over mobile networks – such as 4G – somewhat limited.