Why VDI Adoption Has Stalled
In August 2007, Gartner predicted that "By the end of 2010, all new PC deployments will be virtualized." (Brian Gammage and George Siffler III, August 8, 2007). Aside from Cloud Computing, VDI may be one of the most talked about new technologies - yet it has failed to take off to the degree that some experts predicted. Indeed, by October 2008, Gartner changed their prediction to, "...However, despite ambitious plans for many organizations, deployments of hosted virtual desktop capabilities will be adopted by fewer than 40 percent of target users by 2010 ."
Everyone knows by now that VDI is a new way of managing user environments. The idea of replacing a traditional PC with a virtualized image in the data center and having the user access the virtualized image via a remote desktop protocol is appealing to IT staff for a variety of reasons that we are all now very familiar.
So, if the move to Virtual Desktops is so compelling why has the adoption rate been so slow? One reason could be that today's VDI software isn't up to par. It is reasonable to assume that since the technology is so new that the software is immature and lacks sufficient features to make the endeavor worthwhile. Another reason could be the unexpected downturn in the economy. Despite the bearish adoption rate, however, Gartner remains upbeat. Earlier this year prediction was bullish:
"The worldwide hosted virtual desktop (HVD) market will accelerate through 2013 to reach 49 million units, up from more than 500,000 units in 2009. Worldwide HVD revenue will grow from about $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in 2009, which is less than 1 percent of the worldwide professional PC market, to $65.7 billion in 2013, which will be equal to more than 40 percent of the worldwide professional PC market ". - Emerging Technology Analysis: Hosted Virtual Desktops February 17, 2009.
It is easy to have a bullish attitude because it is certainly reasonable to assume in the next few years that the technology will catch up and the economic downturn will reverse. However, this article examines other more fundamental reasons why the VDI adoption rate is not what was predicted. And, if not corrected, these issues could continue to hamper the VDI adoption rate regardless of the state of the software and the state of the economy.
Typically, when an organization is deciding upon a new paradigm such as VDI they choose to conduct a proof of concept or "pilot". Pilots usually take place within a subset of the user community and users are expected to perform their normal line of business applications. That is, they are expected to perform the same functions they would normally perform except they are on a non-production system. If your organization is large enough, you may choose to run multiple pilots simultaneously with competing vendors' software. If the pilot is successful, you can expect to move from pilot to production at some point in time. If the pilot fails or languishes in the pilot stage for a significant period of time then there will be no production system. It is pretty simple actually: unsuccessful pilot equals no production system which equals no VDI adoption.
So if you are contemplating a VDI pilot (or are in an existing pilot that is languishing) there are five distinct issues that could subvert your pilot:
