VDI, XenClient, iPad, and more final thoughts from Citrix Synergy

Since I already summarized booth visitor reactions to the Unidesk demos last week, I'll just share a few observations from our last few days at Synergy before unveiling the winner of our iPad contest:

• Expect to see VDI implemented in mixed environments. Many customers told us they're planning to implement Citrix XenDesktop on top of VMware vSphere.
• VDI is still in its infancy. Several of the largest and most progressive enterprises are reporting the same thing - VDI pilots are in progress but large-scale deployments are not yet underway yet because of an inability to give knowledge workers a great user experience at reasonable cost (hence the interest in Unidesk).
• Unidesk Chief Solution Architect Ron Oglesby is a hit with the virtualization community. His breakout session "Server Virtualization – smashing success, Desktop Virtualization - on hold. Why?" was packed and covered in a blog by Sid Herron of Citrix and Microsoft partner Moose Logic. I lost count of how many times people came up to him at our booth saying "I've read your books." Good thing he's humble.
• XenClient is very cool, but practical applications of the bare-metal hypervisor are scarce.
• The real XenClient opportunity is not about letting users toggle back and forth between work and home VMs in a Bring Your Own PC (BYOPC) model. XenClient's ability to run multiple VMs on a PC or notebook opens up amazing new opportunities for third party solutions that can improve or provide new capabilities around desktop patching, app delivery, user mobility, personalization, end user self-service, desktop repair, auditing, edge security, data protection, and more.
• With the integration of XenDesktop and XenApp and Citrix FlexCast's blurring the lines between terminal services and VDI, you have to be very clear when explaining how you work with Citrix. Even though our signs said we're focused on VDI (for now), we still had a lot of people asking if Unidesk supports terminal services.
• We were impressed at how technical and eager to learn the Synergy attendees were. We were still giving demos to a good-sized crowd as the union workers were literally taking our booth apart around us.

As for the iPad... The people who entered our contest were a mix of customers and solution partners who need Unidesk to reduce storage requirements, improve the user experience, and simplify patching/provisioning for their VDI projects. The winner was the virtualisation product manager for a large UK reseller specializing in Citrix and VMware (and now Unidesk) solutions. That's her accepting the Unidesk iPad from yours truly.

She was thrilled to win, especially since she had been looking all over San Fran for one to bring home, and they were sold out. We were thrilled to hear one of her clients will become one of Unidesk's first customers.

10 more lucky winners of Unidesk Starter Packs will receive details about their prize via email.

If you missed us at Synergy, fear not, you have two more chances to win an iPad and Unidesk Starter Packs. Look for us at the Kansas City VMware User Group (VMUG) June 11 or at Briforum in Chicago June 15-17.

-Tom Rose
Unidesk CMO