VMware, Citrix, Microsoft and other virtualization companies will benefit as the worldwide hosted virtual desktop market accelerates through 2013, with revenue growing to $65.7 billion in 2013, according to a new research report by Gartner. This growth could mean that HP, Dell and other hardware vendors will be encouraged to take their own steps into the virtual desktop marketplace.
VMware,
Citrix, Microsoft and other virtualization companies
stand to benefit further from their virtualization solutions in coming
years, at least according to a March 26 report by research firm Gartner, which
said that the worldwide hosted virtual desktop market would accelerate
through 2013.
Hosted virtual desktops are run as virtual machines on an enterprise server, accessible by
end users via a remote device, such as a
traditional desktop PC, a laptop, a thin client or, in the future, a
smartphone.
As part of that
rise, worldwide revenue for the HVD market would grow from about $1.5 billion in 2009 to around $65.7 billion
in 2013, or roughly from 1 percent to 40 percent of the worldwide processional
PC market.
"PC vendors must prepare for the growth
in demand for this client computing architecture by adjusting sales strategies
and compensation models or they risk losing expenditure share with enterprise
customers," Annette Jump, a Gartner analyst, wrote
in the report. "A number of changes in the way users can access
applications and client computing capabilities are bringing a number of
alternative architectures to the fore."
Virtualization
has played a major part in IT companies' emerging long-term
strategies.
On March 16,
Cisco announced that
VMware's
virtualization tools would play a vital part in the launch of its Unified
Computing system, an ecosystem that will incorporate a new blade server and
the VMware virtualization platform.
Sun Microsystems
is attempting to counter the VMware Workstation with
the
xVM VirtualBox 2.1, commercial-grade, no-cost, open-source desktop
virtualization software that includes, among other features, support for
hardware virtualization (Intel VT-x and AMD-V) on Mac OS X
hosts.
And in February
2009,
Citrix
announced its XenDesktop 3.0, enabling enterprises to centralize the
operating system and deliver virtual Windows XP or Vista desktops from both
Citrix virtualization environments, but also VMware and Microsoft.
Gartner also
predicted that roughly 15 percent of the "current worldwide traditional
professional desktop PCs will migrate" to hosted virtual desktops by 2014.
Although vendors such as HP and Dell do not offer hosted virtual desktops, the
research firm suggests they might "expand their presence in the segment."
Microsoft's
partnership with Citrix would drive Microsoft into the HVD-supplier market
within the next 18 to 24 months.
"HVDs are part
of a bigger shift in client computing from traditional thick-client distributed
PCs toward more manageable, secure and centralized client computing environments
among many large and midsize companies," Brian Gammage, another Gartner analyst, wrote. "To benefit from this shift, PC
vendors don't need to create or even own all the components themselves, but they
do need to be able to sell solutions and not just a 'bag of
bits.'"
The current
recession will inhibit the adoption of HVDs in the short-term, given the
necessary server and network-infrastructure investments; after this slow start,
however, implementation will begin on a larger scale in 2010 and 2011.
The desire of
the enterprise to change its strategic model, from purchasing high volumes of
desktop PCs to replacing at least some of those PCs with cheaper units, will
eventually trigger rapid HVD adoption growth over the next three to five
years.
Editor's Note: This article was revised to correct a XenDesktop version number.
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