VDI has come a long way, allowing companies to virtualize entire user workgroups and create a truly efficient business model. Call centers, hospitals, manufacturing, and numerous other industries are reducing their end-point footprint, while still pushing down rich applications and creating a great user experience.
But we haven’t reached the finish line yet. Here are some innovations for VDI that are coming down the pike in the coming months:
HTML5 and clientless delivery. We’re getting much closer to a clientless future. This means using virtualization and desktop delivery technologies like VMware View, but not having to install a client at the end-point. HTML5 now allows us to stream down applications and desktops through a browser. Schools can use less expensive Chromebooks while still delivering a student’s desktop image. Mobile fieldworkers can use cheaper devices with sound security since the data is centralized and locked down at the data center. The future of VDI will create a lighter delivery model that’s capable of supporting more device types.
Richer application experiences. Two things are enabling this. First, we have better control over CPU, RAM, GPU and storage resources at the data center level, allowing the delivery of more virtual workloads with greater density. Secondly, the VDI delivery method itself is a lot more powerful, through new types of policies which manage user groups, applications, network segmentation, and how specific resources are pushed to the VM. In the past, splitting up GPU resources was a challenge. Now, we can control how GPU resources integrate into virtual desktops. Furthermore, the power behind modern GPU cards has come a long way. For example, we can create GPU resource control policies which allow for pass-through capabilities, graphics acceleration for VDI and apps, and even bare-metal OS GPU options for intense applications and workloads. This allows applications like CAD to function perfectly in a VDI environment.
More sophisticated monitoring and automation. It’s now possible to introduce automation such as alerts, thresholds and infrastructure monitoring into your VDI ecosystem. For example, within the VMware vShpere hypervisor, you have granular controls over the entire virtual and software-defined infrastructure. You can create a proactive environment that responds to resource bursting and new users coming on board. This level of automation lets administrators better serve users while spending less time administering the actual environment.
Greater support for cloud integration. You’re designing an infrastructure that’s capable of supporting users whether they’re on site or working remotely. Today, VDI allows that type of architecture to happen, through direct cloud integration. Consider this, your hypervisor is the gateway to the cloud. You can create secure, private connections between on-premise data centers or those living in the public cloud. You can create policies which allow for the load-balancing of applications and even desktops between internal and cloud environments. In the near future, this entire process will be even more transparent. On-premise, hosted and even SaaS apps will all be delivered through a single portal hosting VDI instances. Users will no longer have to access different portals for different types of applications, as they do now.
New types of VDI innovations, like automation, are allowing IT environments to be much more proactive. Managers can spend more time planning around their infrastructure rather than worrying about spinning up new VMs. By creating an environment which optimizes resource control, desktop and application delivery and supports a distributed user, you help create an agile organization which can quickly respond to change.
Underwritten by HPE, NVIDIA and VMware.
