Steve Damadeo, IT operations manager at Festo, said his company is now uses Microsoft HyperV to create a VDI environment for the iPads. For now, it allows him to secure the data and ignore the physical device. But he sees VDI as a stopgap measure that Festo will eventually move away from.

"We're a firm believer of secure the data and not the device," Damadeo said. "I don't care if you come with an iPhone, an Android, a laptop, a netbook, a tablet or whatever. We're interested in securing the data. If you focus on that, you can be a lot more flexible in your options.

"We believe in a two-tier approach. The first is enable basic access to it, and then get off the legacy application when possible," he said. "If I can provision it through VDI, it's no different than if you're accessing it through your laptop. However, beyond that we need to work into this idea of changing the idea of the way we handle applications."

For example, Festo custom built its sales force collaboration tool; it didn't buy from Salesforce.com. That custom app gave users access to the most frequent corporate data for sales purposes. But now, Damadeo is looking to connect data stores directly to the company's SAP CRM environment or to its Outlook and Exchange platforms.

"So, step one is at least be able to connect to it so you can do what you need to do. And then step two is be able to work your way off that platform...," he said. "I don't think VDI is the way to work your way off that platform."