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Virtualization Trends Series: A Brief History of Virtualization: Part 1
Virtualization Trends Series: The Evolution and Future of Hypervisors: Part 2
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Here we are in part 5 of our virtualization trend series with the topic of desktop virtualization. VDI implementations (or virtual desktop infrastructure) is one of those areas that is not of everybody’s concern in the IT department and tends to be forgotten about until something goes wrong and nobody can work anymore.
While desktop virtualization was already a big part of many organizations’ strategies, it was shoved under the spotlight when covid hit the world in 2020. At this point many companies realized they were not ready for work-from-home arrangement or got completely overwhelmed by the demand in terms of compute resources and internet bandwidth as their environments were only sized for a fraction of the workforce.
In this article, we will talk about desktop virtualization, how it evolved over the years, where it is today and where it might be going in the future.
Background of desktop virtualization
Desktop virtualization is now an old technology that allows users to access and run a virtualized version of their desktop OS on a remote server, that is, in a virtual machine running on the company’s hosts. This technology has been around for a long time and has evolved to meet the changing needs of businesses and organizations.
The origins of VDI can be traced back to the late 1990s, when companies such as Citrix and VMware began developing products that allowed users to access a virtual desktop from a remote location. One of the first products of this kind was Citrix MetaFrame which became Citrix Presentation Server and then Citrix XenApp, was released in 1998. MetaFrame allowed users to access a Windows-based desktop remotely, using a protocol called ICA (Independent Computing Architecture).
Citrix remained the market leader until VMware came up with VMware View in 2007 and started grabbing slices of the market thanks to the use of Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), which is an open standard and meant that it could work with a wider range of client devices and operating systems than Citrix MetaFrame. Note that VMware later came up with blast protocol.
One of the key distinctions in VDI is the difference between application virtualization and desktop virtualization. Application virtualization involves creating a virtualized version of a specific application, which can be accessed from any device. Desktop virtualization, on the other hand, involves creating a virtualized version of an entire desktop environment, including the operating system and all the applications that are installed on it.
VDI vs RDSH
Another important distinction in VDI is the difference between desktop virtualization and Remote Desktop Session Hosts (RDSH) which were around way before VDI. RDSH is a role in Remote Desktop Services (RDS) that allows users to connect to a remote desktop session that is hosted on a server. In contrast, desktop virtualization involves creating a virtualized desktop environment on a client device, such as a laptop or a tablet whereas RDSH offers the user a session on the Server OS.
Therefore, there are several important differences between the two approaches that often dictate whether an organization goes for VDI or RDSH.
- Isolation
- RDSH: Remote users share the underlying OS as they get a session on a centralized machine.
- VDI: Remote users have a dedicated virtual machine with its own OS.
- Resources usage
- RDSH: Because the users are centralized on a few large servers, resources are consolidated.
- VDI: Since users get their own VMs, there is an overhead in terms of compute as each users runs an OS. Storage is also less efficient but this is usually mitigated by the use of storage deduplication on the underlying storage.
- User experience
- RDSH: Users are logging into a Windows Server OS which is different from client OSes like Windows 10. In order to offer a user experience that is closer to what end users are used to, there is a role feature called Desktop Experience to replicate the look and feel of a client OS.
- VDI: The virtual machines the clients connect to are deployed from a golden image installed with a client OS like Windows 10. VDI also offers much better multimedia performances of traditional RDS.
- Complexity
- This one can be argued as you can also go wild with a RDSH deployment but VDI (Namely Horizon View) will usually be more complicated than its counterpart in terms of architecture and management.
- Cost
- RDSH requires license for the underlying Server OS and client access licenses (CALs) which can be either per-user or per-device.
- VDI deployments will be more expensive than RDSH as you will need to pay licenses for each client OS on top of the server OS that runs the components and licenses for the third-party provider such as Horizon View.
With that said, there is no one better solution when it comes to VDI vs RDSH as different use cases and requirements will dictate which route to go for.
Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)
Regardless of how it is implemented, remote desktop is one of those areas that will always be around in the IT landscape. Sure, things changed and will keep changing like the arrival of thin clients, BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device), VDI, virtual apps and now Desktops-as-a-Service but people will need to work remotely more and more.
The VDI market size is expected to grow from $11.9 billion to $57.9 billion by year 2030 with Europe being the second largest share. So far, we mostly discussed traditional deployments and compared VDI to RDSH which often happen on-premises, but this rapid growth will be partly driven by cloud adoption.
Running a VDI environment on-premises raises similar concerns as cloud services in general:
- Large upfront investment in hardware, licenses, design, implementation
- Operating the platform is costly, time consuming and will require skills on hand from both infrastructure, desktop and network teams
- Upgrade campaigns can take a long time as several components are involved. For instance, with VMware there will be NSX-T, vSphere, vCenter, Horizon View, Edge gateways, App volumes, desktops images, etc
- The infrastructure is designed with future in mind but things can dramatically change (think Covid) in which case you can’t “just scale out”
Desktop-as-a-Service brings the same benefits as cloud services by offloading the underlying infrastructure to the cloud provider and only pay for the actual desktops and apps you need your workers to use. Several cloud-providers and main IT players offer subscription-based DaaS offerings including AWS Workspaces, Citrix, Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktops and of course VMware through their VSPP program to only name a few.
However, in the case of VMware for instance, I should point out that we are talking about providing desktops as opposed to running a Horizon pod in VMs running in a cloud provider which would only qualify as distributed VDI in a sense.
What to expect in the future
While traditional VDI solutions are still going strong and will continue to do so for a time, one can ponder on the direction this market will take. With the previous chapter in mind and in light of the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom and Citrix by Vista Equity Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital, those new owners will want proven, stable and recurring revenue, which is the reason why most companies are pushing cloud services so heavily as opposed to perpetual licenses and tin boxes.
The merger that made the most noise in 2022 was Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and raised concerns for most customers following predictions of aggressive license price increase in order to force customers to move to cloud services but only time will tell.
In short, many customers will keep relying on private datacenters to run their own VDI solutions for a number of reasons that usually also apply running servers on-premises as opposed to the cloud, but we will definitely see an increase in adoption of Desktop-as-a-Service when companies slowly shift their CAPEX expenses to OPEX.
Virtualization Trends Series: Do you Actually Need a Multi-Cloud Strategy: Part 3
Virtualization Trends Series: ChatGPT and PowerShell: Part 4
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