Who's missing what? A checklist of what each vendor needs to get to VDI+ by 2010.

Last week I wrote about the four technical capabilities that needed to evolve in order for VDI to become mainstream. For today's article, I put together a quick chart showing which vendors have (or will soon have) which capabilities.

Posted by Brian Madden on July 03, 2008 -

Citrix XenServer is here to stay

I just want to quickly clarify the editorial I wrote yesterday. Other bloggers have written that I suggested that Citrix XenServer is going away. This is not what I believe. I firmly believe that Citrix XenServer is here to stay, and that it was a very good thing for Citrix to buy XenSource.

Posted by Brian Madden on June 30, 2008 -

Prediction: Citrix will drop the open source Xen hypervisor for Hyper-V. The rest of the open source world drops Xen for KVM.

Microsoft Hyper-V and the open source Xen hypervisor are so similar that Citrix might switch to using Hyper-V for its XenServer products. Meanwhile, the hot new way to virtualize servers in the open source world is KVM. Where does this all leave Xen?

Posted by Brian Madden on June 30, 2008 -

Prediction: VDI will be ready for wholesale desktop replacement in 2010. Here's how we'll solve the problems to get there.

VDI is a niche solution today. In this article we'll explore the specific technical issues that are preventing VDI from replacing enterprise desktops in large numbers. We'll also look at why these issues will be solved by June 2010 and why VDI will become mainstream in 2011.

Posted by Brian Madden on June 23, 2008 -

The simple way to solve remote display protocol compatibility problems: Don't use a remote display protocol! Is offline VDI / "client-based computing" the future?

Last week I wrote that one of the main challenges in the leading VDI products on the market today is that their remote display protocols—ICA and RDP—don't work with all applications. I also put forward the idea that until VDI can work for 100% of applications, it won't grow much beyond the niche solution it is today. Putting those two thoughts together, one could argue that better protocols = broader VDI adoption.

Posted by Brian Madden on June 05, 2008 -

Do you think Citrix XenDesktop is cheaper than XenApp? Don't forget about the Microsoft OS licensing costs. Then think again.

Recently Brian Madden posted a couple of articles on his website regarding the pricing of XenDesktop in regards to the pricing of XenApp. In the most recent article he states, "Too bad the CXOs of the world are going to read that XenDesktop is the 'cheap' way to XenApp and want to deploy it for all their users immediately." Well the CXOs of the world are going to read that XenDesktop is the 'cheap' way to XenApp BECAUSE Brian keeps writing it. But just because Brian keeps writing it doesn't mean it's true.

Posted by Brian Madden on June 02, 2008 -

Brian Madden's June speaking schedule: Sweden, Chicago, London, The Netherlands, and Belgium

May and June are prime conference and seminar months. I'll be speaking at the following events in June:

Posted by Brian Madden on May 30, 2008 -

Citrix's ICA problem, while not as bad as VMware's RDP problem, is still a problem for widespread VDI adoption

The fact that today's remoting protocols have some limitations seems lost on VMware and Citrix--at least in their marketing messaging. For example, the only "real limitations" of XenDesktop that Citrix's Sumit Dhawan mentions are "offline access requirements or advanced peripheral support." In last week's letter to partners, VMware's Jeff Jennings wrote that "One of the main value propositions of a virtual desktop is that all your applications work in a VDI environment." Neither vendor mentions the real inconvenient truth—that neither ICA nor RDP can remote all applications.

Posted by Brian Madden on May 29, 2008 -

Today is my five-year blogging anniversary

On May 28, 2003, I posted my first blog entry on BrianMadden.com. You can still read it today, with DocID #1 - "Tarantella buys New Moon." So what made me decide to blog? Like most things in life, the path was not direct.

Posted by Brian Madden on May 28, 2008 -

The complete text of VMware's letter to partners positioning VDI on the day Citrix released XenDesktop 2.0

The day that Citrix released XenDesktop 2.0, VMware sent the following email to their partners:

Posted by Brian Madden on May 27, 2008 -