EXECUTIVE
A D V E R T O R I A L
VIEWPOINT
Sumit Dhawan
SENIOR VP AND GENERAL
MANAGER, VMWARE
Leads product development,
product management, strat-
egy and delivery for enter-
prise and personal desktop
products.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
visit www.vmware.com/desktop
Virtual Desktop and
Application Virtualization:
The Time Has Come
Although they have been around for several
years, virtual desktop and application virtu-
alization solutions have not gone mainstream
in most enterprises. That’s bound to change,
however, given advances in the technologies
and the increasing need to deliver a great
computing experience to mobile device users.
In this Q&A, VMware Senior VP and General
Manager of Desktops Sumit Dhawan, explains
why it’s time to revisit virtual desktop and ap-
plication virtualization technologies.
Virtual desktops and application virtualiza-
tion have been around for a while. What
challenges had prevented organizations
from widely adopting the technologies?
The biggest problems have been cost and com-
plexity, because virtual desktop or application
solutions have been built on top of high-cost
server computing technologies that are not de-
signed and optimized for end user computing.
As a result, it’s always been extremely complex
for customers to design and operate their vir-
tual desktop and application environment.
Why should organizations consider virtual
desktops and application virtualization
solutions now?
At VMware we knew that the problems of
cost and complexity had to be addressed for
customers to enable business mobility easily
and at lower costs. We took on the issue of cost
by providing optimized data center technol-
ogy for virtual desktops. For example, storage
costs can be 30 to 40 percent of the cost of the
virtual desktop. With VMware Horizon 6,
VMware virtual SAN technology significantly
reduces storage expense. Also, VMware’s EVO
hyperconverged technology eliminates the
guesswork and complexity of designing the
environment for virtual desktops. Together
with Horizon 6, it provides a complete solution
for hosting virtual desktops and applications.
In addition, we offer Horizon Air, which
enables customers to deliver virtualized desk-
tops and applications from VMware’s public
cloud in a pay-as-you-go model. Horizon 6
and Horizon Air work together to provide a
seamless experience to end users, regardless
of whether the desktops and applications are
hosted on-premises or in the cloud.
Additionally, this year alone, we cut costs by
40 to 50 percent, driving down the cost of a
virtual desktop to the cost of a physical PC.
Is it possible to have a virtual desktop solu-
tion that reduces administrative overhead
while improving the end user experience?
Yes, Horizon 6 delivers a rich end user experi-
ence while reducing administrative overhead.
New VMware technologies accelerate rich
graphics-based applications so that video,
multimedia and even 3-D applications can all
be virtualized at lower costs and offer a better
user experience.
In terms of management, we have integrated
our operations management with VMware data
center tools that customers already use. These
tools can provide visibility into and manage
everything from the data center all the way
down to the device. And now, with Horizon,
we deliver a unique and innovative technology
called App Volumes, which can do real-time
application delivery into virtual desktops. With
App Volumes, applications can be loaded or
unloaded instantly, giving users personalized
desktops at much lower costs.
What are some additional advantages of
deploying VMware Horizon 6 for virtual
desktops and application virtualization?
VMware now has a complete software stack
that gives customers the ability to deliver
any application or desktop to users with a
great user experience at the lowest-possible
cost and with efficient management. To help
customers take advantage of these benefits, we
have developed a new Safe Passage program,
which includes migration tools and profes-
sional support and services to help customers
make the switch to Horizon 6.