Evolution of the virtual desktop continues

http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/news/2217417/vendors-bolster-support-virtual-4023352

Enterprises gained new support options for virtual desktops this week as VMware announced professional services to help firms implement its Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) model, while Citrix unveiled plans to link its traditional application delivery framework to its XenDesktop technology.

VMware is expanding its professional services organisation to support VDI as well as server virtualisation. Customers will be able to get consulting and deployment assistance from VMware itself, or through a VMware partner, the firm said.

For companies new to desktop virtualisation, VMware is offering VDI Jumpstart to train staff on how to set up its desktop virtualisation technology, while its Plan and Design scheme is for customers taking desktop virtualisation to the next level.

“Plan and Design is a bit more sophisticated, for people that already have a pilot up and running. It’s about training people and building out the infrastructure and is more tailored and customer-specific,” said Tommy Armstrong, VMware’s senior product marketing manager in Europe. The new service offerings are available now.

Very cool, it will be interesting to see how we evolve the virtual desktop, what solutions the major players bring to systems management and administration as well as performance. Virtualizing a desktop for an end user is not an issue, but as we scale up to the different user groups within my organization - who has performance priority within my virtual world? Do we separate the development, trader and ‘normal’ desktop infrastructure?