InformationWeek Analytics New Research Finds Virtual Desktop Technology Gaining Popularity, as 77% Are Either Actively Using or Testing VDI

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- InformationWeek Analytics, the leading service for peer-based IT research and analysis, today announced the release of its "Research: VDI Adoption 2010" report, in which 430 business technology professionals weigh in on their desktop virtualization strategies. Report author Jake McTigue has been involved in virtualization since 2002 and has been a project lead on consolidation and virtualization projects for public safety, education and private-sector orgs.

Research Summary:

Our July 2010 InformationWeek Analytics Desktop Virtualization Survey reveals strong interest in VDI as organizations seek to increase security and manageability and leverage expertise gained in server virtualization initiatives. The comparatively tight spread among the Big 3 vendors-Citrix, Microsoft and VMware-suggests that this market will not be dominated by any one supplier, as VMware has done on the server side.

Findings:  

• Most implementers have chosen to limit VDI to a partial deployment by user category, ranging from 68% of corporate office workers down to just 3% of media production workers.

• There's a 20-point spread between those who say the IT organization is satisfied or very satisfied with the current VDI infrastructure (93%) and those who can say the same for end users (73%). Clearly, IT needs to do better at educating employees and smoothing the inevitable bumps in the road.

• Current attitudes toward cloud-based or outsourced VDI are far from positive, with only 14% of organizations reporting use vs. 39% who say no to a services model; 47% are considering.

• The initial investment in hardware and software needed to deploy a virtual desktop infrastructure is high enough that 31% cite cost as the primary reason for not adopting. However, for those willing to make the initial investment, there is ROI to be found in the areas of operating expenditures, labor, power and hardware, not to mention added security and data center utilization.

"VDI technology still has a good bit of room to mature," says Lorna Garey, content director of InformationWeek Analytics. "But a wide variety of companies are taking the leap anyway. Our respondent pool was closely split among those with fewer than 500 employees (37%), those with 500 to 4,999 (32%) and those with more than 5,000 workers (31%). Education, government and financial services firms were all well-represented."

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