The problem? Different versions of Java used by various specialty health care apps prevented simultaneous usage, as did the embedding of different versions of the Crystal Reports reporting tool in other applications. (If Crystal Reports 4 is running, Crystal 5 cannot run, for example.)

Now that Alamance uses SoftGrid, users get a unified desktop environment, with the ill-behaved apps corralled so they can no longer cause trouble.

The new reality of virtualization

Desktop and application streaming require IT to think differently about tasks that they've done for years, notes Neal of Duncan Regional Hospital. "It takes a little more thought in the rollout," he says. For example, his support staff now has to keep an eye on the blades that serve the desktop environments, because a broken fan can cause them to overheat, knocking out multiple users in one blow. His staff also must monitor disk usage for each blade, because 80GB is shared among three users.

Virtualized desktops can be provisioned to specific client hardware, so a particular call-center terminal always uses the same virtual machine on a specific blade. But they can also be provisioned to specific users, based on user log-in, so the client device running them could be anywhere. That can pose a challenge for setting up access to printers and departmental file servers, depending on how mobile users are, observes Bell's Quigley.