Virtual desktops were once a relatively drab technology for call centers, schools and other undemanding IT environments. But a new breed of desktop virtualization tools is being aimed at mainstream corporate users by large and small vendors alike. In addition, Corp.
's recent releases of Windows Vista and Office 2007 have some companies rethinking how they want to deploy future desktop software upgrades. Microsoft itself helped that process along by adding a software license that lets customers with Software Assurance maintenance and upgrade contracts run their Windows clients in virtual machines on servers. Michael Koval, CIO at Long Foster Real Estate Inc.
in Fairfax, Va., is receptive to the new desktop virtualization offerings, having had positive experiences with earlier products such as Systems Inc.'s Presentation Server, as well as server virtualization software from VMware Inc.
"We're definitely looking at all of the options," Koval said. Long Foster has used Presentation Server for the past seven years to deliver applications hosted on servers to more than 3,500 employees and 16,000 affiliated real estate agents. Besides centralizing management, the Citrix software has enabled the real estate firm to provide applications to end users on an as-needed basis, reducing the number of software licenses that Koval needs to buy.
Citrix acquired application streaming vendor Ardence Inc. in December, and recently announced a virtualization product called Desktop Server. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
-based company claims to be the only vendor offering all forms of thin-client and virtual desktops under a common management . That's good news to Koval. "It's definitely more attractive," he said, "because then I don't have to go upstairs to ask for money to overhaul my entire infrastructure.
I picked Citrix many years ago because they already had a lot of services under one roof. That trend has only continued." Citrix isn't the only vendor introducing new products.
Virtual Iron Software Inc., a developer of server virtualization tools in Lowell, Mass., and Provision Networks Inc.
, a desktop virtualization vendor in Reston, Va., announced recently that they're teaming up to offer a virtual desktop package that's priced at $120 per client.
News RSS