Desktop virtualisation poses risk for CIOs

strategy as a 'significant risk', according to Ovum, reports Voxy.co.nz.

In Solutions Guide Desktop Virtualisation report, the independent technology analyst claims that CIOs harbour concerns about the immaturity of the market and some are reticent to take the plunge for fear of purchasing the wrong solution for their enterprise.

Roy Illsley, author of the report and Ovum principal analyst, commented: “CIOs are coming under increasing pressure due to the escalating cost of maintaining corporate-owned remote PCs and laptops, demands for more end-user flexibility and mobility, and the proliferation of personal mobile devices in the workplace.”

According to Computing.co.uk, Ovum's research found that desktop virtualisation currently represents about 15% of the business PC market.

However, 12% of this is dominated by the traditional terminal services model, which is typically used in call centre environments, and has been around for the past 10 years.

If this model is excluded, enterprise solutions from the likes of VMware, Citrix and Microsoft account for less than 3% of the market. And Ovum suggests that most of these deployments are small scale.

“A recent CIO survey conducted by Ovum found that simplifying the management of desktops to reduce costs as well as increasing business agility were the top two reasons for implementing desktop virtualisation, meaning awareness of the potential benefits is high,” said Illsley.