Desktop Virtualisation is receiving a lot of marketing attention from leading IT vendors, and is hyped by the press and analyst firms as the "next big thing" in IT. However, Desktop Virtualisation is more than just the buzzword of the year. It potentially represents a fundamental transformation of IT operations and here’s why.

Desktop Virtualisation involves removing the Desktop PC from the desk, and centralising the hardware platform at a data centre to make it easier to manage and support. It also has the effect of improving utilisation of hardware resources, improving security and keeping software conflicts to a minimum. The more prevalent virtualisation technology becomes, the less overall computing horsepower an organisation needs, and the fewer processors are needed as a result.

According to IDC, virtualisation is being hailed as ‘the greatest thing since sliced bread’. At its simplest, it reduces hardware costs by letting any single ‘virtualisation server’ support multiple desktop clients, rather than having one device per desktop client.
An example of a successful Desktop Virtualisation implementation is at Duncan Regional Hospital a 142-bed hospital that serves southwest Oklahoma in the US. In just two years the number of desktop users at the hospital had more than doubled to about 500 so they decided to deploy thin clients to keep the physical management of their desktops in a central location. This also increased the security of their sensitive patient information and reduced the risk of damaging vital IT equipment.

When the support of VMware virtual machines became a reality in 2006, the hospital installed PC Blades in their data centre and configured them initially to run three virtual machines each, so they could add more users as required and wouldn't need more blades as the demand for desktops increased. As a direct result of this centralised solution, they saw desktop support calls drop by 40 percent, and any problems that did arise were quickly resolved. It also freed up valuable resource allowing the hospital to concentrate on providing critical services to the community.

Why PC Blades?

The PC Blade offers a number of advantages including, high density as you can pack 112 PC Blades into a single rack, lower power consumption and less heat output than standalone units. The PC Blade also delivers high availability which is essential for mission-critical environments such as trading floors, operating rooms, manufacturing lines and command and control centres where downtime is simply not an option.

Why Virtualisation?

Virtualisation on centralised PC Blades can make tasks such as system migration, backup, and recovery easier and more manageable thus aiding application and system mobility. The virtual machines can be used to consolidate the workloads of typically under-utilised Desktop PCs to fewer machines and provide savings on hardware, environmental costs, management, and administration of the PC infrastructure.



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Paul Dunford qualified as a Member of the Institute of Management Services and a Member of the Institute of Administrative Management. He worked for a variety of government and commercial organisations for 10 years, investigating and recommending solutions to business problems, before moving into a career with IT vendors. Paul has spent over 20 years working for IT vendors in senior management roles. These include Hewlett Packard, Computer Associates, Quantum, Cheyenne Software and Banyan Systems.