Why VDI?

I was reading Justin Paul Justifying the Cost of Virtual Desktops: Take 2
http://sites/thenicholson.com/files.jpaul.me/?p=6597 and had some thoughts on where he see’s the cost model of VDI. I know Brian Madden has talked at great length of all the false cost models for VDI that exist (and I’ve seen it in the field) .

1. I Agree with Justin on power with some narrow changes. Unless its a massive deployment, another 4 hosts in the data center isn’t going to break the bank. Unless your forcing people to use thin clients, your also not saving anything real on the client side (and certain thing (Lync, MMR etc) require Windows Embedded clients at a minimum anyways. The only case where I’ve successfully made this was a call center that was 24/7 and handled disaster operations in Houston. After IKE everyone learned how hard it is find fuel, anything that reduces the generator and battery backup budget actually has real implications.

2. Justin does make good points about SA and keeping up with the Windows OS releases on physical machines is just as expensive as VDA. Sadly this is only true if companies are not just standardizing on Windows 7 and running it into the ground for the next 5-7 years. Hey it worked for XP right?

3. While I agree a ticket system helps track time spent restoring machines etc, no one makes non-billable IT resources track time to the level of detail and meta tags/search to make building an in house ROI model possible. The best luck I’ve had is having people do a week survey with 15 minute intervals broken down is as close as you’ll get in house IT to do. Its painful to get even that done. Unless your desktop support is outsourced (And you have access to their reports!) This is going to always be sadly a fuzzy poorly tracked cost. I’d argue VMware Mirage (or equally good application streaming/imaging system) can provide a lot of the opex benefits without the consolidation and other pro/cons of VDI. VDI extends beyond imaging and breakfix. Its about mobility, security, and

4. People work from home today with VPN, and Shadow IT (LogMeIn etc). The ability to do this isn’t what you sell, its the execution and polish (Give a sales person a well maintained, PCoIP desktop and they will grab their iPad and never come back to the office). Its the little things (like Thin Print letting them print to their home PC). Ultimately it isn’t the “occasional” or snow day remote users that sell VDI. its the road warriors and branch offices (who are practically the same thing with as little attention as they get from central IT typically).