Owen Cole Matt Piercy Kevin Bland
the adoption of VDI, “The value virtual infrastructure is estimated to exceed the explosion of the thin client
proposition of Virtualisation and VDI use 60-70% less power than existing market started by Citrix and endorsed
has to be made for each organisation. physical environments. This enables by Microsoft.
Though VDI is a hot topic its adoption the IT department to support strategic VDI has many more vendors giving
will be based on specific benefits to the targets on reducing CO2 emissions it their backing and that will ensure its
organisation. It is important to identify whilst also driving down costs.” success. What the channel needs to do is
the pain points of the organisation and “However, the real cost benefit talk to existing clients and discuss where
show how VDI addresses those.” is derived from a transformation in they are going with their IT deployments
“Companies will not adopt VDI desktop support. Thin client devices and what are their pain points.
because it is the next great thing. It has can be supported remotely, significantly As has been pointed out this is not
to deliver tangible benefits.” reducing the time taken to resolve just a major enterprise market. It has
Chris de Silva, Managing Director problems. Furthermore, with no local the same relevance in the mid market
at NEC Philips Unified Solutions disk, these machines are much more and SMB market.
believes that organisations can justify robust: users cannot download and The difference is that the whole
VDI by combining the move with the store viruses that could compromise VDI model lends itself to the managed
adoption of thin client devices at the the infrastructure; whilst vandalism and service model. Solution providers
desktop, quoting the same reasons theft are also reduced.” who are used to selling on-premises IT
that Virtualisation has taken hold in Chris Whiteley of Horizon supports solutions and just providing technical
the datacenter, cost, energy reduction this strategy, “Thin client devices are support services may have to adopt
and manageability, “Replacing ideal for VDI. Experience has shown a new business model based around
expensive PCs with virtual thin client that many thin client devices are still in desktop service provision.
devices delivers a huge range of daily operation after 10 years whereas For the larger channel companies
benefits. Not only do these devices PCs have a typical replacement period VDI represents a major opportunity
cost a fraction of the price of a PC, of 3 years.” for consulting services and managed
they also have a far longer lifespan, “The energy saving is also desktop services. Not to forget the huge
with a typical six year warranty. With substantial with a typical PC consuming infrastructure sales that will result from
most devices at least 90% recyclable, 80 Watts compared to a Sun Ray thin its deployment.
disposal costs are far lower as well, client workstation at 17 Watts.” For the channel VDI represents
creating a significantly reduced The whole VDI proposition seems the biggest business opportunity for
lifetime cost of ownership.” tremendously compelling and there many years. The difference is that this
“Power consumption is also lower, is no doubt that the channel needs to opportunity is not about skills in one
with thin client devices using at be not just sitting up and taking note technology area. To be successful in
most 30% of the power of the PCs but getting started in gaining the skills VDI the channel has to look at the
they replace – and that includes the and experience. end to end provisioning just like the
proportion of server power. Indeed, if With so many advantages in both IT manager.
VDI is added to server virtualisation, the general office environment and in VDI will definitely spawn many
organisations can achieve significant vertical markets there is no doubt that more partnerships and alliances and in
reductions in power consumption: the VDI is going to match and probably some cases mergers and acquisitions.
JUNE 2008 8020 EUROPA 27
24,25,26,27.indd 4 13/6/08 09:43:15
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