Is the VDI eco system finally rising to the challenge that will truly bring Virtual Desktops to the fore. Here is a snapshot of VMWare vForum 2011 in Sydney.

This time around I spent the time on the stand with triCerat, first time they have attended the vForum.

To be honest, I thought we would get a bunch of "potential" leads that were just thinking about projects but a long way off.  How wrong I was and delighted of course.  We had countless people coming to the stand that have real projects going on and are keen to get some answers to what they need to provided a quality outcome to the user - how incredible refreshing.  We have been banging that drum for a long time - if the user's don't like what they see they will do anything to make a failure of any infrastructure project.  Sure, there might be some back slapping for a while if you were on time and on budget - but how much care was taken to give the user and exceptional experience; isn't that what we all learn when it comes to customer service?

Here are the key take outs I have from the show...

• VDI is really taking a hold; I had at least half a dozen people mention "they have all but finished server virtualisation so now they are moving to do the desktops".
• IT Managers are looking much closer at how to employ management tools to better control VMWare enviroments.
• The eco system is catching up with a myriad of targeted tools including what we carry from LiquidwareLabs and Xangati plus some exciting new technologies, especially around VDI / VM performance..
  • Fusion I/O - Hardware I/O Accelerator increases server capacity by amazing amounts
  • Virsto - Software solution that optimises disk layout and increased server capacity by around 40%
  • Teradici - Provide a hardware graphic acceleration solution.

Some of these have initial limitations when it comes to Blade server deployment, but it is all available now and broad coverage including built in options to common server platforms will make the performance of VDI truly better than a local PC.

I stll leave the question on the table though - where to next?