Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Desktop virtualization with Xendesktop

Desktop virtualization involves encapsulating and delivering either access to an entire information system environment or the environment itself to a remote client device. The client device may use an entirely different hardware architecture than that used by the projected desktop environment, and may also be based upon an entirely different operating system.

The desktop virtualization model allows the use of virtual machines to let multiple network subscribers maintain individualized desktops on a single, centrally located computer or server. The central machine may operate at a residence, business, or data center. Users may be geographically scattered, but all may be connected to the central machine by a local area network, a wide area network, or the public Internet.

Desktop virtualization with Xendesktop

Citrix XenDesktop 2.1 delivers virtual Windows XP or Vista desktops to users, thereby centralizing OS and application management tasks such as OS and application updates and patches while also significantly reducing help desk calls by preventing permanent end user tampering.

Even though XenDesktop 2.1 provides a good desktop virtualization infrastructure platform—aptly doling out clean desktops to users in a snap—my tests at eWEEK Labs showed that desktop virtualization doesn’t fall into the same category of “must-do-now” technology as server virtualization. IT managers shouldn’t be stampeded into thinking that just because “virtualization” appears in a product name that it will provide the same level of hardware or operational savings that the much more familiar server virtualization provides. The main reason: there are a lot more moving parts when it comes to a virtual desktop compared to server virtualization. In addition, aside from the complexity and fast-changing nature of desktops compared to servers, there are the license costs.

Citrix Products like Citrix Xendesktop, Citrix Xenapp Fundamentals and Citrix Xenapp version 6 are now available for sale at http://www.softwareforless.com.

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