With all the current hype over virtualisation, IT departments must be careful when planning future desktop strategy, according to thin client vendor Igel Technology. In particular, businesses should look carefully at which architecture is best suited to their user needs instead of pushing blindly ahead with virtual desktops.

Moving some or all users to virtual PCs hosted on a server may seem like a neat way of centralising the infrastructure, but for many applications this approach is akin to taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut, according to Igel marketing director Stephen Yeo.

“Virtualisation is great for certain things ­ - if you want to migrate PC users to the datacentre very quickly, for example ­ - but it requires a lot more hardware on the server side compared with running Terminal Services,” Yeo said.

Yeo added that most users operating a stable set of applications, such as Microsoft Office, can be served perfectly well by a Citrix or Terminal Server session. “There’s been no intelligent debate about which model is best for what type of application and user,” he said.

Igel recently joined VMware’s virtual desktop infrastructure (VDi) alliance programme and has the broadest range of terminals with support for virtual PCs, according to Yeo. But the firm sees remote desktop access as just one of a suite of “digital services” that it can offer through thin clients, with others including Java, voice over IP, and a browser for direct access to many enterprise applications.

“If you have a guy in a warehouse who needs access to SAP, it’s better to go straight to it via a browser rather than through a virtual desktop. Otherwise you’re introducing a middleman in your IT infrastructure that doesn’t need to be there,” Yeo said.

Moving to virtual desktops also has potential pitfalls, and Yeo warned that IT departments must think carefully about how these will realistically be managed.
“I can see lots of IT guys pulling their PCs into the datacentre, then wondering how they are going to manage them and finding they are no easier to reach than ordinary Windows desktops unless you have the right tools. Only in the past few months have management tool vendors started to look at handling both virtual and physical PCs,” Yeo said.

In the future, Igel sees the virtual desktop market dominated by connection brokers from three firms ­ - Citrix, VMware and Leostream ­ - and has integrated support for them into its terminals.

Yeo said current developments spelled the end for the desktop PC as the chief business client. “The days of the big box on your desk are numbered,” he predicted. “Some users will still have laptops because they work on the move, but most other workers will move to virtual desktops or thin clients.”