Desktop Virtualization Growing to $5B by 2016
Virtualization will seep into every aspect of business computing over the next five years, growing tenfold as recession cost-cutting fades and mobilization of the workforces increase.
Virtualizationwas perceived as useful, but expensive during the cost-cutting era before the recessionbegan to fade circa 2009, when just $500 million was invested in it. During therecession, it was still cheaper to tether workers to their desks and force themto work with inexpensive generic PCs. Now, however, businesses are jumping onthe visualization bandwagon not only to unshackle workers from their desktopPCs, but also to sidestep the security risks of mobile devices overapplications customized by IT for thin clients, tablets and smartphones.
Virtualization enables business partners to provide more comprehensive solutions to new and existing customers, as well as allowing companies to optimize IT investments, infrastructure and resources.
Accordingto ABI Research, the worldwide market for hosted VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure)will grow tenfold from 2009 levels to top $5 billion by 2016, with NorthAmerica and Europe accounting for the bulk of the new installations.
ABIResearch's study, entitled "Desktop Virtualization: The Global Market forVirtualized Business Desktop PCs," concentrates on virtualization ofdesktop PCs, where their operating system, applications and databases arerelocated to cloud computers, which then remotely deliver the same desktopexperience as before to a secure laptop, netbook or other thin client, tabletor smartphone. Leading the charge in this category, according to ABI Researchis Norton Ghost, Citrix XenDesktop and VMware View. Each of these solutionsmeets the demands of today's mobile workforce while ensuring high security thatwould be difficult to match with applications custom-made by IT.
"TheVDI market will exhibit impressive growth in the next five years," saidLarry Fisher, director, automotive, energy and emerging technologies, at ABIResearch. "Buyers will principally consist of large enterprises looking toreduce their desktop support and management costs, and companies andorganizations that need to lock data in the data center, either for complianceor security reasons, [allowing] the IT department to integrate a wide range ofdevices into corporate networks with relative ease [and providing] fullcorporate desktops through iPads, smartphones and other popular devices."
Otherbenefits include enhanced business continuity, lower overall energy expendituresfor the smaller clients over desktop PCs, and enhanced recovery capabilitiesafter disasters. High-end virtualization and cloud-computing providers like IBMcite four main reasons to adopt virtualization now: consolidation of resourcesto improve efficiency and business agility; easier management of variableworkloads; the ability to automate processes to reduce management costs andprovide more consistency; plus the ability to optimize delivery of services forfaster responses to changing circumstances.
Source : Smarter Technology
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