5 decisions for application and desktop virtualization

One of the major benefits of application and desktop virtualization is simplifying management. VDI makes it easier for IT to monitor, configure and troubleshoot all of its desktops, and DaaS takes away the burden of management entirely. But IT must decide how much it wants to sacrifice the end-user experience to simplify management by choosing between nonpersistent and persistent desktop virtualization.

Nonpersistent virtual desktops don't maintain any user settings or files from session to session, which can greatly reduce the amount of storage IT requires. This may, however, cause issues with the end-user experience; generally speaking, users prefer to maintain customizations and files from session to session. The storage savings are so significant, however, that if IT can get away with choosing nonpersistent desktops it should.

Persistent virtual desktops provide the session-to-session customizations that users likely prefer, but this option comes at the cost of a massive increase in storage. Where IT can store nonpersistent virtual desktops as a single golden image with all of the desktops and apps included, IT must store persistent desktops individually to preserve the user settings and files. This drastically adds to the storage capacity IT needs for the desktops.

Many of the benefits of virtual desktops are present for both persistent and nonpersistent desktops. IT must consider the needs of users and how much storage it can afford when deciding between nonpersistent and persistent virtual desktops.