Tal Klein, Director of Technical Marketing at Citrix Systems sat down at theCube with John Furrier and Dave Vellante at Citrix Synergy 2011. He discussed VDI, his role in the company and gave us a perspective to the desktop virtualization market.

Klein began by saying that VDI is a component of desktop virtualization, and that the main characteristic that differentiates it from the latter is the hosted model. Running a desktop – whether virtualized or not – on the end user’s physical machine is desktop virtualization, compared to delivering the same to the end user’s given device. During the interview, the expansion of mobile tech, particularly tablets, was pointed at as a notable motive behind VDI.

Klein continued to detail on the customer and user points of view in this space, stating that each company offers different products aimed at different customers. His job involves a lot of competitive analysis and intelligence as well as building up a strong marketing approach, Klein said, adding a bit about his interactions with CIOS, IT managers and analysts who’ve shown an interest in Citrix’s XenDesktop offering.

The first example he highlighted was a discussion with a CIO of a healthcare company, and how customers are looking to find the best approach to addressing business needs along with the offering deployment. The IT administrators in turn want to know how virtualization will affect their position and role in the company, which according to Klein only increases with the introduction of more centralized management and secure system. Lastly, he noted that the analysts to whom he have spoken want to know how virtualization can contribute to a company’s long term strategy and competitive edge – something that requires a long term plan by the solutions as well, the Citrix exec concluded.