New Computing Research VDI paper reveals the economics and pitfalls of deploying desktop virtualisation within SMB installations

DataCore Software has commissioned a report with European IT Managers to assess the viability of virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI) working successfully and economically in smaller environments. The research was gleaned from surveying nearly two hundred UK IT Managers, two thirds of them working with companies with under 500 employees*, who had considered, but not yet adopted, VDI.

Key Findings and Conclusions – Storage a major Obstacle to VDI
Researchers quickly revealed that most respondees broadly understood that whilst conceptually VDI adoption promised to lower the cost of ownership and reduce the complexity of upgrades, (cutting support and extending the longevity of existing hardware); in reality, VDI was perceived as being too complex to deploy and required a far greater storage overhead than most SMBs would wish to source.

Key findings from the research:(full report can be downloaded at http://www.datacore.com/CR-DataCore-VDI)
•?????????25% of organisations with fewer than 100 users upgrade desktops as required without a budgetary plan.
• ?Reducing desktop total ownership costs is the aim cited by the largest proportion of respondents (40%) closely followed by reducing the desktop support burden (39%).
• Reducing the cost of a one-off desktop upgrade was cited by 27 percent; 26 percent cite increasing security and 22 percent cite better user experience. The desire to gain more control over users was a factor for 19 percent.
• ?Twelve percent of respondents said that, although they had achieved their aims for VDI deployment, overall IT costs stayed much the same. And eight percent said that although desktop costs were reduced, server and storage costs increased.
• Increased storage costs ambushed 11 percent of their investments.
Key conclusions for resistance of VDI uptake within the report include:-
• ?SMBs feel high up-front costs primarily due to the need to implement a specialized storage infrastructure to support performance and high availability in a real-world deployment.
• SMBs are concerned that although they appreciate that VDI may lower the total cost of ownership at the desktop level, extra costs will emerge elsewhere, such as the storage level
• SMBs feel that due to vendor pricing models typically suited towards the enterprise that promised economies of scale will not translate for typical SMB 100 to 200 seat environments. In larger scale deployments large up-front costs can be made to look less impactful as they are spread over larger project outlay numbers.

The research was conducted among the readership of UK based Computing Magazine and DataCore was one of the major sponsors of the report.
DataCore VDS addresses the VDI paradox; designed and priced to meet pent up SMB market demand

The paradox is simple, small and medium businesses want to adopt desktop virtualisation for the same reasons large enterprises do – to reduce desktop management costs, improve productivity and increase business agility, but they can't afford enterprise-class solutions since they cost a fortune and are overkill for smaller environments.

DataCore Releases DataCore VDS 2.0
DataCore Software, have themselves recently announced the release of DataCore™ VDS 2.0 software designed for SMBs to simplify, cost-effective deployment of persistent ‘stateful’ virtual desktops starting at just 25 seats.

“DataCore is focused on the 25 to 200 virtual desktop environments, making it totally practical for small and medium enterprises to implement a virtual desktop infrastructure to improve productivity and costs. Unlike highly complex VDI solutions designed for mainstream large desktop projects, DataCore VDS 2.0 significantly lowers the hardware and storage costs needed to deliver high-performance persistent virtual desktops.” Comments Christian Hagan, vice president of DataCore EMEA.”

The new release includes performance optimizations to speed response times; a new Hot Standby VDI server protection option; support for Single sign-on (SSO) access and Active Directory (AD); plus new wizards, templates and tools to achieve a higher degree of integration with Microsoft VDI and Windows Server 2012 platforms and their remote desktop and delivery services. The new DataCore VDS 2.0 software release is now available to customers via select authorised European solution providers who are trained and qualified to deliver these simple to use, high-performance and cost-effective VDI solutions. DataCore has packaged and designed DataCore VDS to meet the underserved needs of small to mid-sized businesses.

DataCore VDS delivers powerful virtual desktops for less than the cost of a PC refresh
DataCore VDS is the easy and affordable virtual desktop solution designed for SMBs. It deploys on a single server, and includes the tools Windows® administrators need to rapidly deliver centrally-managed virtual desktops to any user for less than the cost of new PCs.
The DataCore VDS highly efficient architecture eliminates up to 75 percent of VDI costs without compromising performance and most importantly the user experience.