Info Tech: January 05, 2011 eNewsLetter |
CDW, a provider of technology solutions to business, government, education and healthcare, released the findings of its client virtualization straw poll.
According to the report, 90 percent of medium and large enterprises are considering or implementing at least one form of client virtualization.
Primary drivers for client virtualization include reduced costs and improved operation efficiency. According to the survey, 91 percent of respondents plan to implement a client virtualization solution within the next 12-24 months despite several challenges.
Sixty percent of respondents cite reduction of hardware, support and management costs as their primary driver for implementing or considering client virtualization.
Almost all respondents—97 percent—have faced challenges, though many of them are not technology issues, the survey finds. Their challenges include getting management behind the initiative, training end-users and ensuring the technology will work on an individual level.
The poll surveyed 200 Information Technology (IT) managers at U.S. businesses with more than 100 employees to understand what is driving the three major categories of client virtualization: presentation, application and desktop virtualization.
Client virtualization enables enterprises to centrally manage end-user software applications, which in turn provides better mobile computing opportunities, stronger network security and more efficient use of IT resources, company officials said.
“Client virtualization can help organizations achieve savings of more than 20 percent of their IT budget, according to the businesses we surveyed that have implemented and are tracking ROI. It is a viable and valuable solution,” said Doug Eckrote, senior vice president, strategic solutions and services, CDW (News 
- Alert), in a statement. “At issue is that organizations underestimate the complexity of deploying client virtualization. The survey results find that it is still worth pursuing.”
According to the report, besides reducing costs, client virtualization eases the software distribution process (40 percent), increases IT productivity (38 percent) and improves IT support (37 percent).
Despite the expected benefits, businesses report a number of challenges to launching client virtualization, including a lack of preparation.
The Client Virtualization Straw Poll also found that for 59 percent of enterprises client virtualization is an equally or more important initiative compared to server virtualization.
Only 58 percent of respondents say that IT management understands how to implement client virtualization, while just 35 percent say their business is appropriately staffed and trained to implement it.
Research and Markets recently announced the addition of a related report from Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert). The new report "Desktop Virtualization: Technology Market Penetration and Roadmapping (Technical Insight)" assesses the adoption of desktop virtualization in addition to identifying business accelerators, challenges and emerging opportunities.
