VMware points VARs to desktop

Jackson: Interest in virtualisation has grown dramatically

VARs without a desktop virtualisation strategy in place need to act now or risk missing out, VMware claims.

Speaking at a partner event in Central London, the firm’s UK and Ireland regional manager Mark Newton said that 2010 is set to be the “most important year for virtualisation yet”.

He said: “This year is going to be a very special time for the industry and it is critical that our partners know what steps to take for the benefit of customers.”

According to Gartner, the worldwide hosted virtual desktop market will make up 40 per cent of the global professional PC market by 2013, against a current figure of less than one per cent.

Rick Jackson, chief marketing officer at VMware, said interest in the firm’s desktop virtualisation solutions had grown “dramatically” over the last 12 months.

“The number of customers at the proof-of-concept stage has tripled over the last six months,” said Jackson. “One of the key driving forces behind that is the fact that lots of companies are currently considering a major refresh of their desktop architecture.”

But installation costs are prohibiting the technology’s immediate wide adoption. “Operating costs go down in a virtualised environment, but end users have to make a very sizeable investment up front to add storage to the datacentre to handle all the desktops. This is probably the biggest source of hesitation at present,” he said.
As a result, VARs with no desktop virtualisation in their portfolios still have time to get a strategy in place. He said: “Partners who have not already started in the path can start today and will not have missed out.”

The company is developing neutral cost models to help drive down virtual desktop installation costs, Jackson added, which should accelerate take-up in the future.

He added: “NetApp and EMC have both come out with very strong claims about how they plan to drive down the cost of storage per desktop this year, which will only add to the momentum.”

Craig Parker, head of pro­position and product marketing at VMware partner BT Global Services, said: “You only have to look at the level of investment by VMware and its rivals to know that desktop virtualisation is a subject which deserves some serious attention.”

Keith Humphreys, managing consultant at euroLAN research, said the adoption of desktop virtualisation was gathering pace in the enterprise.

“In the mid-­market and below, adoption is not as widespread, but VARs should be getting on board with Citrix, Microsoft or VMware sooner rather than later if they do not want to miss the boat,” he said.