Standing on a whale, fishing for minnows

J. Tyler Rohrer of VMware highlights the technical advances in the PC market over the years to illustrate the benefits of desktop virtualisation.

“Why did we migrate away from the typewriter to the PC, and why will we migrate to VDI? For one reason, and one reason only - productivity”
-J. Tyler Rohrer

I have spent the better part of the past three years as an evangelist for the business and technical merits of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), as well as all of the associated hosted, streamed, 'hypervised', abstracted and delivered methods those three letters stand for these days. Recently reading a document regarding Windows 7 migration, it dawned on me why exactly we are all so fascinated with new desktop strategies. Here is my manifesto.

What is the primary driver for VDI? CAPEX savings? No, this driver will convince you to pay more I am betting. OPEX savings? No, soft costs are cool, but there is more. Agility? Important, but no. Central management? A bonus, but no. Security? Really important, but no. Buy your own PC? Cool, but no. Business continuity? Again, valuable, but no. 

VDI benefits

Roll the clock back to 1977. Everyone is sitting at their nice and stable US$299 IBM Selectra typewriter, typing away, writing memos, putting them in  bins, folding them into envelopes, and moving information around quite well. The typewriter not only cost a few hundred dollars, it only needed one SKU to support it and give or take a ribbon cartridge, hardly ever broke, and did the job perfectly, lasting for years. A sales person comes in one day, and says, "I have a new thing for you. It costs US$2999, needs about 20 SKUs to support it, and you're going to have to hire a bunch of people to learn how to work the software and stuff needed to keep it working. It breaks a lot too. When it does, you may not know what actually happened, it will last about three years, then I will be back to sell you a new one and then your users will have to start from scratch. We call it a Personal Computer, or PC. How many would you like to buy?"

The salesperson leaves, we think that this PC thing maybe for some users, but gosh, at that CAPEX versus what I pay now, I just can't justify it. Oh, and this is all taking place during the oil crisis, during horrible economic times. Yet within five years, almost every single typewriter on the planet was ripped out, and replaced with this new thing, the PC. It's now 2009. We have US$299 PCs, and a sales person comes in and says, "I have this new thing for you. I won't be able to match the CAPEX you spend now, I believe I can lower OPEX and I believe my technology leads to security, agility, easier management, disaster resiliency, and a host of other good things. Applications may get easier to use, you may be able to buy less of some stuff, but probably more of others. My solution comes in a million flavours, can be complex to configure, definitely will not work for everyone, is new, and ultimately may lead to your cloud dream fulfilment. We call it VDI. How many would you like to buy?"

The salesperson leaves, we think maybe for some users, but gosh, at that CAPEX versus what I pay now, I just can't justify it. Oh, and this is all taking place during the financial crisis, during horrible economic times. And within five years, almost every single PC on the planet could be replaced by this new thing, VDI. Why did we migrate away from the typewriter, to the PC, and why will we migrate to VDI? For one reason, and one reason only - productivity.

The current debate has me thinking we are "standing on a whale, fishing for minnows". VDI is not about CAPEX. VDI is not about OPEX. Those are nice benchmarks to pass smile tests. VDI is about Potential Productivity. What would you pay for that?

J. Tyler Rohrer, COO and founder of Liquidware Labs Inc., was a partner at FOEDUS, a successful consulting organisation that was acquired by VMware in 2008. As an evangelist of VDI, Rohrer is a regular contributor to industry forums, and speaks nationally on topics such as application and desktop virtualisation. He has extensive knowledge and experience of VDI.