Windows 7 will drive virtual desktop adoption, VMware says

The release of Microsoft's Windows 7 should increase adoption of desktop virtualization technology, but won't necessarily cause a massive shift from physical to virtual desktops, a VMware executive said this week.

The top 7 roadkill victims on the journey to Windows 7

Industry analysts say many IT customers are interested in desktop virtualization but have been waiting for the introduction of Win 7 to make a wholesale shift to the technology. Migrating from physical to virtual desktops is a potentially enormous project, and many businesses decided it would be inefficient to take the virtualization leap and then be faced with a separate project to upgrade operating systems.

VMware's Bogomil Balkansky, vice president of product marketing, agreed that Win 7 will bring the topic of desktop virtualization to the minds of IT pros, and customers he has spoken with seem to be more interested in Win 7 than Vista, he says.

A decision to upgrade employee desktops to Win 7 may also make a CIO think more broadly about a desktop strategy, Balkansky says. "[Windows 7] is very topical and puts the question on the table," he says. "I think it really forces the subject of virtual desktops to become an agenda item in many companies."

But Balkansky does not expect an immediate massive uptick in adoption.

"As you expect, a whole migration to Windows 7 or migration to virtual desktops is something that will not happen overnight," he says.

The switch from XP or Vista to Win 7 can be simplified by virtual desktop technology, however, Balkansky says. For example, desktop virtualization can minimize the risks of migration by preserving a customer's XP environment. If anything goes wrong with Win 7, the customer can simply revert back to a working state of XP, he says.

"Obviously, Windows 7 poses a challenge for customers, in the sense that migrating hundreds or thousands, or tens of thousands from one generation of a desktop operating system to another is a fairly serious and involved logistical challenge and logistical problem," he says.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine