What’s Stopping Virtual Desktops? Human Nature.
Virtual desktops – the combination of virtual access, application virtualization and virtual machine software – aren’t new, but why aren’t they in more widespread use? a recent article that I read asks.
After all, desktop virtualization offers IT folks help managing desktop systems – from dealing with both operating system and application updates to unexpected failures to security for mobile systems.
On this blog, I even wrote about the birth of a new cloud-based “D” or desktop by Sun Microsystems.
But blockages to adoption by enterprises may include the following:
- Psychological: Don’t mess with it if it “ain’t” broke, and leave well enough alone.
- In today’s world, running apps and OSs directly on physical, internal servers works – although it certainly isn’t efficient, and it’s costly. So, even though it’s not the perfect solution, lots of IT managers are afraid to change it to something they feel adds risk. Besides, most desktop virtualization approaches require changes to operation of desktop systems, applications and the like. It’s extra – and many might say unnecessary – work!
- Service issues: Even though the performance issues of virtual desktops are decreasing as time goes by, support issues are a reality – although increasingly minor on a person-to-person level. But large organizations can count up support instances and consider service a larger factor.
- Aversion to being “lassoed and dragged.” I love that quote, and bravo to the author of the piece for his creative way of describing how users of desktops issued by their company are averse to the move to virtualization because they’ve customized their systems with Twitter and the like, and they don’t want to lose that. Unfortunately, rather than deal with a whole lot of one-off conversions, IT often lassoes and drags desktop users in a standardize fashion. “People don’t like to be lassoed and dragged,” he says.
What I really connected with in this article is the last point: that the development of the cloud and the trend toward “cloud-based personal productivity applications” such as email and document and calendar management might change minds about moving to virtual environments.
I’d like to add the economic factor here, too. Yes, it’s tough to change human nature, but at some point, many companies, large and small, will be convinced of the savings and efficiencies of going virtual – in part due to the cloud – and that will add fuel to the fire of change. And once companies begin to feel comfortable with the reliability of virtualization and the cloud and cloud services (such as transaction monitoring), there will be more migration.