Virtualisation is a topic that is never far from the headlines these days, whether
it is new developments around virtual desktops, or server vendors integrating a hypervisor into systems to handle virtual machines more efficiently.

From an end user perspective, desktop virtualisation has the biggest potential to change the way they work. Moving a worker’s Windows desktop from the PC sitting on their desk to a virtual machine hosted in the datacentre has numerous attractions, but it also has some drawbacks, including a possible tricky transition period from one architecture to the other.

A virtual Windows desktop should theoretically be easier to manage. For one thing, it ought to greatly simplify migration to a new platform such as Windows Vista. Instead of deploying an update across the network to each and every PC hard drive, IT staff should be able to just kill each virtual machine and bring up a new one in its place.

However, moving to a virtual PC means that user access has to be via a thin client or some other device acting as a viewer for the remote desktop. As Intel’s Pat Gelsinger pointed out during a presentation at the firm’s recent developer forum, this makes access to your desktop highly dependent on the network bandwidth and latency.

While this is little cause for concern for those sitting in an office with a high-speed corporate network, it is a different matter for remote or mobile workers. Indeed, it is difficult to see how travelling executives could use anything other than a laptop to run applications, especially during a flight.

But suppose you accept this, and decide to push ahead with virtual desktops for some of your office-based workers, what would be the best way to manage the transition? Running many virtual machines is presumably more demanding than simple file-and-print services, so the datacentre will likely need upgrading with meaty new servers ahead of any migration away from desktop PCs.

While such a move might ultimately lead to savings through reduced management costs, the upfront costs of upgrading the infrastructure could prove a tough proposition for some IT heads to sell to the board.

I would guess, however, that a great many pilot projects are now taking place in companies to see just how feasible a virtual desktop strategy is, and whether the cost savings really do make it worthwhile.

One way or another, we will soon find out whether this form of consolidation is the way forward for companies, or whether it is just more hype.

The death of the business PC has been predicted many times before, yet has always turned out to be an exaggeration.