Brian Madden is involved with 10 books either writing, co-writing, or publishing, owner of the website BrianMadden.com for more than 15+ years. He left the IT industry in 2016 after serving his 21 years & then enjoyed in his camper van by driving around the country. In 2018, he joined VMware & working in the EUC CTO’s office.
Ace Cloud Hosting reached to him and asked for his opinion on what he thinks about VDI in the coming years. Here is his answer –
“To answer the question “Is VDI dead?”- we need to first understand the fact what VDI is.
What is VDI?
Is it single user VM’s, remote UX, running on-premises or is it RDSH, multiuser per VM, running on-premises or is it Cloud-based VM’s (RDSH or VDI), running on Azure, AWS, Google, etc., or Traditional DaaS (hosted using either VDI or RDSH) or is it Windows 10 Multiuser?
These all have one thing in common. They are all about Windows desktops & Windows apps, running somewhere else with UI remote to the user.
So, we will be talking about the concept of the Windows App made available to the remote user. Brian says, in 2012, VDI was expensive and less performing way more than RDSH. He believed that desktop was a transformer and VDI was a “Go-Bots.”
Pros & Cons of VDI
VDI has a checkered past, but Brian’s views on VDI were that it is less expensive, worthy, technicality good, and doesn’t have to be non-persistent. However, according to him, VDI still lacked in graphics, peripherals, network connection,s and some challenges with Multimedia and AV.
“Does VDI has a future?” He asks himself – Will Windows apps still be a thing? And if yes, then what would be the delivery network to remoting their pixels, and if these points are valid for today, does this mean these are true for the coming years.
Now let’s discuss these questions one by one.
Windows 10 Modern Management helps to manage the applications for the organizations just like VMware Workspace ONE does for physical Windows 10 end-users, but it still has its limitations like VDI that we discussed above (Graphics, Network Connection, etc.).
We all are hearing that Windows is dead for the last 20 years, but Brian answered that Windows Apps are still a thing and will continue like this for the coming years. Lots of people think Windows App remoting will still be a thing in the future, which can be verified as we can see the list of Vendors below who invested in it.
Windows App vs. Windows Desktop
VDI is about delivering Windows desktop to the users, so what’s the difference between Windows App and Windows Desktop, and what is the future. To answer this, we need to ask, “What is Desktop?”
A desktop is basically what we built & deliver to the user, including everything from Device hardware interface, App runtime, security containers, user interface, App launcher, App integration, configuration container & Provisioning target. So, VDI is the bundle of these eight components, and every device has its own, whether Android, iPad, iPhone & MAC, etc.
“Is VDI dead?” Let’s See
To answer the question, “Is VDI dead?” the new question arises – do we need a Windows desktop in the future, or just Windows Apps is needed, and will it be delivered in the form of Pixel remoting.
Brian believed that using the Windows desktop as the configuration container is starting to go away. As we can see, we are not using the Windows desktop to configure apps; we don’t need a Windows background- it’s just another device for the user.
Do applications need to be Windows? If the user is using Windows Device, we can manage it using Modern management, but for other users using Chromebook, MACs, and Windows, remoting would be fun.
We are going to see more and more applications that would be non-Windows. For example, Office is a perfect example of a Native application used in all the platforms & windows remoting pixel will be there for a long time but not in the form of the whole Windows desktop.
He added that he could not comment if the VDI is dead & RDSH will live on, but we could see the delivery of a full remote Windows desktop in the coming years & delivering a single Windows application will continue for a long time.
What are your views on this? Are you using on-premise VDI or hosted VDI for your business? Please let us know in the comments sections below.
Note: This article is an adaptation of Brian Madden’s 2018 article – Is VDI Dead?
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