Judging from the latest figures on what is running on converged boxes, VDI could be the killer app for converged infrastructure products writes Wikibon Analyst Stuart Miniman in his latest Professional Alert, “Is VDI the Killer App for Converged Infrastructure”. Some 70% of Cisco/NetApp FlexPod installations are running VDI either as their only application or as part of a mixed workload, while VCE reports that 90% of Vblocks are running VDI either stand-alone or as part of a mixed workload. Startup Nutanix lists VDI deployments as about 25% of all sales.

Converged systems simplify the creation and management of the stack. Because most converged systems are sold to support virtualized environments, they also move VDI infrastructure into the domain of the virtualization administrator, answering the question of which group inside IT owns responsibility for running VDI.

However, warns Miniman, this does not necessarily mean that VDI growth will “go exponential”. VDI adoption is still in the single digits of overall desktop revenue. And Desktop-as-a-Service systems such as Google Docs and Microsoft’s cloud version of Office, that also promise to simplify desktop management, have so far not seen high adoption rates. Miniman’s recommendation is that IT groups considering VDI should look at putting it on a converged stack to simplify management of both the VDI installation itself and the underlying infrastructure.

Like all Wikibon community research, this Professional Alert is available in its entirety without charge on the Wikibon.org Web site. Interested IT professionals are invited to register on the Wikibon site, which allows them to read, correct, and comment on this and other Wikibon research as well as receive Wikibon’s Peer Incite announcements and newsletters.