Virtual desktop market set to boom in 2009

IDC research points to growth in demand for technology next year

Nick Garlick: Nebulas Solutions has high hopes for the virtual desktop environment with the UK launch of the Pano

Shrinking budgets in 2009 will accelerate adoption of virtual desktops, according to the latest report by IDC.

Some of the main drivers will be a surge in mobile workers and devices, increased reliance on offshore employees, new security threats and spiralling costs of management, support and maintenance.

IDC described desktop virtualisation as a term that is “creating a lot of buzz” for offerings in the industry, with virtual distributed desktops proving popular because they are cheap to deploy and support both fixed-desk and mobile workers.

Matthew McCormack, client computing consultant for IDC’s European System Group, said: "Next year will be a developmental year for desktop virtualisation technology with lots of pilot activity. From 2010 we will see the technology begin to enter the mainstream.”

In related news VAR Nebulas Solutions Group is the first to bring a virtual desktop technology called Pano to the UK market.

The Pano Virtual Desktop device, which comes in a silver cube shape, is a zero client, designed to specifically replace traditional PCs with a cost effective and security virtual desktop. The unit itself has no memory, operating system, drivers or moving parts.

Instead the cube connects keyboard, mouse, display, audio and USB peripherals over an existing IP network to a virtualised server.

Nick Garlick, managing director of Nebulas Solutions, said: “Given the advantages in terms of power, cost and management savings, it is difficult to see why organisations would not want to implement this technology. Pano strengthens our expanding virtualisation business and should see us making significant inroads into the burgeoning virtual desktop market.”