Desktop As A Service Thin Client
Late last night, VMware announced it had acquired Desktone, a company that provides virtual desktops as a service, which (among other things) allows users on mobile platforms to access Windows apps from non-Windows devices.
At first glance, this is a little puzzling given that VMware already has its own technology for doing the same thing. Here’s what VMware is doing.
Both VMware and Desktone play in the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) space. The idea is that instead of offering Windows apps in the traditional way — running locally on a user’s PC — a company will create a number of virtual Windows desktop configurations on a server, then offer them over the network to users as needed. This was originally positioned as a cost benefit: Instead of updating Windows images and apps on a bunch of individual PCs, VDI would let companies take care of updates in a central place. Users would simply see the updated desktop the next time they logged on. In theory, companies could also save on hardware by buying thin client terminals instead of PCs for each user, although they’d still have to pay Microsoft for a Windows license for each user.