What Is Virtualisation Desktop Infrastructure

Virtualisation Desktop Infrastructure is becoming an integral concept behind many business technology infrastructures. Commonly abbreviated as VDI, it is the client-server computing model that drives desktop virtualisation.
Desktop virtualisation is a computing setup in which the personal desktop experience is physically separated from the underlying hardware and its processes - using the client-server model. The desktop is run among many on a remote server, and the user's computing device serves as a "thin client" whose only function is to send requests to the server. The processes, applications, and data that make up the desktop are run independently of both the user computer and the server hardware. The system can be so seamless that the user may not even be conscious of the fact that the desktop is not running on the client hardware.
One advantage of VDI is that it allows for far greater portability and versatility than a traditional desktop computer. A user could access and use a virtual desktop from almost any modern personal computing device, such as a smartphone, tablet or laptop. They could use the virtual desktop to access information that would otherwise be unavailable to them, or to execute processes that their device's hardware would be too weak to handle.
VDI is also convenient when one wishes to enable many simultaneous computer users without dealing with the cost and maintenance issues involved with many separate computer systems. For this reason, many offices, web cafes, libraries, classroom computer labs, and other shared computing environments use VDI. In a normal centralised computing situation, demand for more computers would require entirely new desktop hardware. VDI, on the other hand, makes it easy to add more virtual desktops that only require new input and output peripherals.
However, VDI has some disadvantages. Although setting up and managing software is easier with VDI, it can be difficult to maintain hardware peripherals such as printers, faxes, and modems. Initial deployment of VDI can be much more expensive and difficult than a traditional computer network. Also, because all the real work is done on the server, network failures could mean that the user is cut off not just from network data but from doing almost any computing at all. VDI can be seen as reducing the user's autonomy and increasing their reliance on a corporate or public network.
Many different companies offer virtualisation solutions such as Ulteo. Ulteo is behind the completely free open-source VDI software soultion called Open Virtual Desktop. The free version is supported by the community, but users can also purchase a subscription support plan to get help from Ulteo themselves. VMware is another name in the VDI space along with Citrix.
Many businesses are now computing with VDI, and many companies offer different implementations of the concept. Though it does come with certain disadvantages, many believe Virtualisation Desktop Infrastructure is an ideal solution for the ever increasing demands placed on desktop services.
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