Ask the Architect about the Next-Gen Desktop

Daniel Feller

Subscribe to Daniel Feller: eMailAlertsEmail Alerts
Get Daniel Feller: homepageHomepage mobileMobile rssRSS facebookFacebook twitterTwitter linkedinLinkedIn


Related Topics: Virtualization Magazine, iPhone for Business, Citrix Virtualization Journal, Desktop Virtualization Journal, Wireless Technology Magazine

Citrix Virtualization: Blog Post

Your Primary Desktop Is a...[Blank]

With a proper infrastructure, anything is possible
By Daniel Feller
Article Rating:
March 26, 2010 03:00 PM EDT
Reads:
 2,469

Fill in the blank if you will. There are many people who are super excited about the upcoming release of the latest tablet PCs (iPad, Slate, etc).  I recently received a comment from someone on Facebook related to a previous blog saying that the iPad Will Not Replace Your Desktop.  The comment basically said

Does the iPad and like devices need to be fully functional to be successful?  How many people have more than one mobile device like a laptop and a netbook?"

That is an interesting question.  But I'm starting to wonder if we need a laptop and an iPad?  Do we need a laptop and a netbook?  Depending on what you do, the iPad or the netbook could potentially replace your laptop.  As I see it, most users have a smartphone and a main work computer, for many that is a laptop because they require a larger form factor device while not in their office.  But what if we did the following:

•    Main computer: Thin client
•    Mobile computer: iPad/Netbook
•    Ultra-mobile computer: Smartphone

If we have Citrix Receiver on all of these devices, we access the same applications/data/environment.



Think about all of the problems we hear about with laptops: stolen, dropped, lost, expensive, etc.  If we went down the virtual desktop route, stolen, broken or lost laptops would not be a problem because your data would be in the data center with your virtual desktop.  So why use a laptop?  

Is it possible that tablets and netbooks could mean that those of us with laptops can toss them away?  If the tablets/netbooks provides us with a connection to a virtual desktop from anywhere, why would we need the laptop functionality?

Of course this won't work for everyone. Some people will need a laptop. But what we will see in the coming months/years is a much more diverse end point environment. We know this is coming, so it is  good idea to start planning how you will integrate all of these endpoints into your infrastructure while still trying to keep the environments secure.

Published March 26, 2010 – Reads 2,469
Copyright © 2010 Ulitzer, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

More Stories By Daniel Feller

Daniel Feller, Lead Architect of Worldwide Consulting Solutions for Citrix, is responsible for providing enterprise-level architectures and recommendations for those interested in desktop virtualization and VDI. He is charged with helping organizations architect the next-generation desktop, including all flavors of desktop virtualization (hosted shared desktops, hosted VM-based desktops, hosted Blade PC desktops, local streamed desktops, and local VM-based desktops). Many of the desktop virtualization architecture decisions also focuses on client hypervisors, and application virtualization.

In his role, Daniel has provided insights and recommendations to many of the world’s largest organizations across the world.

In addition to private, customer-related work, Daniel’s public initiatives includes the creation of best practices, design recommendations, reference architectures and training initiatives focused on the core desktop virtualization concepts. Being the person behind the scenes, you can reach/follow Daniel via Twitter and on the Virtualize My Desktop site.

Comments (0)

Share your thoughts on this story.

Add your comment
You must be signed in to add a comment. Sign-in | Register

In accordance with our Comment Policy, we encourage comments that are on topic, relevant and to-the-point. We will remove comments that include profanity, personal attacks, racial slurs, threats of violence, or other inappropriate material that violates our Terms and Conditions, and will block users who make repeated violations. We ask all readers to expect diversity of opinion and to treat one another with dignity and respect.