Citrix, VMware Assess The Future Of Desktop Virtualization

This week, both Citrix (CTX S) and VMware (VMW) described independently a future of desktop virtualization is mainly based on the cloud to simplify deployment and ongoing management of the virtual desktop.

Citrix Synergy 2015 Conference Citrix announced a public beta program for Citrix Cloud Workspace, an implementation of its desktop virtualization software which is based on a level of control hosted cloud to create modules consisting of everything from specific types of office to complete sets of services that can be provided to an end user through a few clicks of a button. Citrix Cloud Workspace is scheduled to be generally available in the third quarter.

The goal, said Natalie Lambert, senior director of product marketing at Citrix, is to give IT organizations more control over the desktop environment in a way that still allows to quickly respond to changing end-user needs quickly.

Besides the development of the Citrix Cloud workspace, Citrix also makes it easier to migrate to the latest versions of XenApp and XenDesktop. Earlier this year, the company launched a beta version of XenApp Update Service, a web-based tool cloud that gathers information on configurations and XenApp and XenDesktop settings automatically generates a script to migrate settings in the new XenApp environment.

Citrix said that although the service is still in beta, over 36,000 applications have been migrated to XenApp 7. An updated beta version will be available this quarter, apparently, will be easier to create models that can be used to help automate the migration process.

As part of a recognition that many customers are caught between refresh cycles, Citrix also released an update to XenApp 6.5 that makes most of the functionality of XenApp 7.6 is currently available to its customers. Citrix also said it is now extending the end of maintenance (MOE) for XenApp 6.5 2008R2 until the end of 2017.

Finally, Citrix showed an update of its Citrix Receiver software that unifies desktop and mobile computing experience through tighter integration with Citrix Storefront shop 3.0 applications.

Meanwhile, VMware has used the approach to desktop virtualization this week to reveal the existence of an Enzo project, currently under development. Sumit Dhawan, senior vice president and general manager, desktop products for End User Computing division of VMware, said the EMC business unit also works to transform the management of virtual desktops and applications via the cloud.

In this case, VMware centralizes management of their virtual desktops through a control plan that is hosted on VMware vCloud Air platform. VMware software intelligent node will be displayed in a convergence device EVO hyper-RAIL or server to create an instance of the desktop master IT environment that can be cloned several times and distributed at will.

Dhawan says that ability of a process that once took days and weeks about 20 minutes to provide up to 20,000 virtual desktops will be reduced. In addition, says Dhawan, an approach to "just in time" to manage desktops means no more be a necessity for the oversupply of IT infrastructure to support IT environments of virtual office.

The end result, Dhawan said, is not only a single pane of glass to manage the entire virtual desktop environment, but also the elimination of changes due to new streaming capabilities earlier in the commitment to environment.

While VMware is not committed to a delivery date for the Enzo project, Dhawan said VMware expects up to 20 percent to 25 percent of all desktops to become virtualized. In comparison, currently less than 10 percent of desktops are virtual.

VMware and Citrix freely admit that the complexity of managing the desktop virtualization has greatly limited its adoption. But now, before you run multiple versions of Windows and the number of mobile computing devices that run on different operating systems, IT organizations seem more in the mood for at least re-evaluate your options. For solution providers, this means there is an opportunity to start a conversation now on the relief of a sore spot for many IT organizations.