VMware alliance will promote virtual desktops

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A new alliance headed by VMware, a subsidiary of EMC, hopes to make it easier to deploy virtualized desktops in the enterprise and make bulky, unmanageable stand-alone PCs a thing of the past.

VMware unveiled the VDIA (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Alliance) on Monday. The alliance will look for ways to encourage enterprise adoption of centrally hosted thin-client desktop technology as a replacement for stand-alone PCs.

VDIA includes more than 20 vendors with expertise in servers, security, thin clients, services, and other segments. IBM, HP, and Sun Microsystems signed on. Virtualization and server-hosted client computing players such as Citrix, Platform Computing, and Softricity, are also participating.

The VDIA’s goal is to develop combinations of products that are certified to work together so customers can deploy virtualized desktop solutions quickly and with confidence in the enterprise, said Jerry Chen, VMware’s director of enterprise desktops.

That’s not to say that members of the alliance are expected to play nicely with each other. “A lot of the vendors are competitors,” Chen said, “so it’s mostly about integrating their technology with our platform.”

VMware will develop and certify virtual desktop solutions with VDIA members and build a catalog of goods that VMware can offer to large accounts. The VDIA members get to have their products marketed by VMware’s services arm, Chen said.

Alliances are springing up everywhere in the virtualization space to team-sell the enterprise market. VDIA members Altiris and Platform Computing have separate alliances of their own: Platform Computing with heavyweights Intel and Novell, and Altiris with Cisco, Microsoft, and Oracle.

Hurdles persist for wide-scale adoption of virtualized desktops, Chen said. They include sensitivity to network slowdowns and outages, and security concerns about granting access to the local desktop’s peripherals.

VMware is optimizing its server technology and focusing on devices, protocols, and management to overcome those issues, Chen said.

Despite the challenges, Chen is pumped up about the VDI technology.

“These are desktops without limits,” Chen said.

Correction: In the original version of this  article, we misstated VMware’s association with EMC. VMware operates as an independent subsidiary of EMC. InfoWorld regrets the error, which has been corrected.