This article is part two of a six-part series exploring virtual desktops in today's IT environment.
While virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) as a concept is not new, it's new that so many people today are thinking about how and where it can be used. In particular, they're evaluating how it compares and contrasts to other methods of delivering desktops to users, namely server-based computing and traditional local desktop architectures.
In this article, we'll look at VDI versus server-based computing (SBC) technologies such as Citrix Presentation Server or Microsoft terminal server. In part one of this series, I presented an overview of VDI.
The SBC approach to delivering a desktop is kind of interesting now, because in many ways SBC technologies have been delivering SBC-like solutions for over ten years. In fact, Citrix didn't even introduce seamless application publishing until 1999, so everything before that was full remote desktops. Of course, we didn't know to call it "VDI" back then, but that's what it was.
However, today's Windows XP virtual machine-based VDI is very different than current SBC desktop publishing, even though they both fundamentally solve the same business goal of providing desktops to users over a thin-client remoting
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protocol.
Let's compare these two technologies and look at where each has an edge.
VDI advantages over SBC desktops
So VDI is cool. It gives you the benefits of personal, traditionally-installed distributed desktops with many the benefits of server-based computing. But there's a flip side. You also get a lot of disadvantages of distributed desktops.
SBC desktop advantages over VDI desktops
As you can see, VDI and SBC are not that different. They are both using thin client protocols to separate the application execution from the user interface, and they both allow users to connect from anywhere with any device. The only real difference is that VDI connects thin client users to a Windows XP workstation, while SBC connects them to a session on a shared terminal server.
In the next article in this series, we'll look at how VDI compares to traditional desktop computing.
About the author: Brian Madden is an independent technology analyst, author, and thinker based in Washington, DC. He's written several books and hundreds of articles about Citrix and thin-client computing technology. Brian is a three-time Microsoft MVP, a Citrix Technology Professional (CTP), and he currently speaks and teaches throughout the world.
