The virtual road ahead

You can tell that a product category has matured when it spawns an ecosystem of complimentary products. In the case of desktop and application virtualization, the emergence of supporting solutions, such as Kidaro's Managed Workspace product, demonstrates that the segment is gaining traction. Kidaro's offering acts as a platform-agnostic wrapper (it works with both VMware and Microsoft Virtual PC) for classic VM-hosted applications, providing an additional layer of integration with the host OS. By recasting the venerable VM image model as a more manageable "workspace" solution, Kidaro is further blurring the distinction between local and virtualized applications.

Other signs point toward a dynamic future for desktop and application virtualization. SoftGrid, for example, already integrates with Microsoft Active Directory. All it would take to make this technology the default deployment option would be to roll the SoftGrid client into the next release of desktop Windows or release it as part of a service pack. That would be an exciting development for Windows shops looking for a clear migration path to the new virtual world.

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Application and desktop virtualizers