The new converged virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) announced recently by Dell and Nutanix can cut 25 percent off the total lifetime cost of a large VDI infrastructure writes Wikibon CTO David Floyer.

Floyer cites an example of the total three-year cost of a typical white-box VDI system for an initial 400 desktops, expanding to 640 desktops over 24 months. He estimates the basic configuration costs $533,000 and requires 37 days to set up; the same system based on the Dell/Nutanix VDI appliance costs $389,000 over three years and can be set up in six days (see chart below).

The three-year hardware cost for the appliance is actually $38,000 more expensive than the white box version, but the cost is nearly offset by licensing costs that are $31,000 lower over the three years. Setup and maintenance is also significantly lower for the appliance, and time to value for the appliance is five days, compared to 21 days for the white box system.

The savings comes from the increased efficiencies of a converged system that in this case includes VMware, Inc.’s vSphere, vCenter and the VDI broker on top of the full hardware stack, all pre-optimized for VDI at the factory. The advantages include the packaging of the appliance as a single, fully integrated, plug-and-play system with updates that are pretested on the full system rather than on individual components. Floyer also said administration is greatly simplified since the entire stack is provided by a single vendor – in this case Dell – with a single contract and contact to call. This significantly reduces costs of development, deployment and operations.

In previous research Floyer demonstrated that the savings and administrative and risk reduction benefits increase as convergence reaches higher up the stack. In this case it covers everything up to the applications the company provides on the virtual desktops.

The full report, which includes detailed analysis of the advantages of the converged VDI system, is available without charge on the Wikibon Web site. Interested IT professionals are invited to register for free membership in the Wikibon community. This allows them to influence the direction of Wikibon research and participate in that research as well as post comments on published Professional Alerts and publish their own questions, Alerts and white papers.

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