Considering Options

Ingle believes that CIOs who have felt the benefits of server virtualization need to allow the technology to bed down and pause for a while before introducing new projects. Then they can consider desktop virtualization carefully to ensure it will meet user needs. "The range of virtual solutions for the desktop, all technically different, presents a confused picture," he suggests.

"As a CIO, can you really be bothered with the task of evaluating all the options with potential visibility to the entire organization? The need to store each image of a virtualized desktop can result in huge storage requirements and that is not necessarily cost effective. You solve one problem and create another elsewhere. The client is always different from the server. Everybody will notice when it doesn't work," says Ingle.

Dawson is at this evaluation stage. "We are at a turning point," he says. "We are heavily into Citrix, with 400 thin clients out of 1,400 total clients. We are evaluating Chip PCs [tiny thin clients that fit into wall sockets] as one way to achieve centralized management of the desktop.

"A lot can be achieved with desktop virtualization in terms of configuration, and we are testing to see if it is viable. There are benefits to holding data centrally, which is key to local government where, for example, you have social workers with laptops."

Dawson believes that changing the way the user interface works is a bigger challenge than server virtualization. "We have had Citrix for many years, and it has taken a long time to get it right and match the look and feel of systems people are familiar with at home, such as Vista and XP."

Virtualization looks set to transform how IT is delivered throughout organizations -- from a piecemeal addressing of business units to a process-driven architecture. The technology provides an unrivalled opportunity for CIOs to align themselves with the business and consolidate their position at the heart of the enterprise.