A Quick Glance at the Various Approaches of Desktop Virtualization

A Quick Glance at the Various Approaches of Desktop Virtualization

In a recent survey it was found that companies with desktop virtualization projects often used more than one
method of delivery. Although most users these days prefer to deploy more than one flavor of desktop
virtualization, they are confused about the various options with all of the market competition around desktop
virtualization.
Here is a quick glance at the different approaches of desktop virtualization.

Remote Hosted Desktops
Here, a serve runs one image of an operating system and a number of clients log in to it using connection broker
software that is the only part of the software hosted on the client machine. This approach is low in cost and has a
high degree of control over data and other applications, although the performance here depends on the quality of
the network connection and does not work when disconnected.

Remote Hosted Dedicated Virtual desktops
As an alternative of having many users that share one instance of the same application, the server hosts a total
operating system and set of applications within a virtual machine that is accessible only to that user. It can either
be hosted remotely or streamed. When hosted remotely, it segregates the activity of each user to avert resource
constraints. On the other hand, it gives the end user better performance when it is streamed.

Remote Virtual Applications
The only thing that is required, in a remote desktop is to create secure connections and transmit graphics and data
is a browser and standard Web protocols. The hardware or software environment of the end user need not be
managed by IT in a remote virtual application. However there can be a bearing on the end user performance.

Local Virtual Applications

In local virtual applications, applications download from the server to the client machine and run there, using local
memory and processing power. There are more Cloud computing resources and improved performance than
remotely hosted applications with less bandwidth consumption that can also be used offline. However, there isn't
much control over the hardware and security of the data.

Local virtual OS
There are two versions with a local virtual OS. One is where a client-side hypervisor can create a virtual machine
within a laptop. The other version is where a hypervisor runs on the machine's BIOS, permitting the user to run

---

various operating systems with absolutely no "host" OS. With a local virtual OS there are no concerns about OS
compatibility, and they can run on non-traditional VM clients like smart phones.

With the multiple technical approaches to desktop virtualization and the different approaches feature different
levels of customer adoption and offer different potential benefits, it is essential to get a fair understanding of the
various approaches. Too much focus on just factor can result in a less than optimal solution. So segment the users
based on tasks performed and applications required, and make your choice.

Also read on - Load Balancing, SSL VPN

---