Greetings from Chicago, where I am attending Brian Madden’s seventh annual BriForum event.  The event got off to a great start yesterday.  It is a smaller event as conferences go, but you won’t find a larger concentration of the brightest minds in desktop virtualization anywhere.  BriForum provides a great opportunity to see and touch some of the best virtualization technology available today, but I have been particularly drawn to some of the sessions focused on where this is all headed.  Chetan Venkatesh from Atlantis Computing did a really interesting session yesterday morning called “Envisioning the Desktop of 2015: A Tale of Three Clouds and Liquid Desktop Computing,” and Brian Madden and Martin Ingram of AppSense revisited their past predictions for the evolution of desktop computing in “Looking Towards the New Desktop.”  In both cases, the brand of client-side desktop virtualization we practice at Virtual Computer factored heavily into the presenters’ view of the future.

Walking around BriForum, one really gets the sense that there is a perfect storm of industry events brewing that is really going to cause desktop virtualization to take off in the next 12 months.  For example, all signs are that Microsoft “got it right” with Windows 7, and that its release will be a catalyst for many organizations to look for new and innovative ways to deploy and manage their desktops.  We think we have one for them.  If you happen to be a BriForum and would like to connect to see a live demo of NxTop, feel free to grab me by the shirt, ping me on Twitter (@dlane), or use the form we have available on our web site.

Fortunately for me, my time spent contemplating the future of desktop virtualization with really sharp people will not end with my departure from BriForum on Thursday.  I am excited to be teaming up with Rachel Chalmers of The 451 Group next week on the webinar, “Five Ways Virtualization Is Changing Your PC.”  It will be held next Wednesday (July 29) at  11:30 a.m. ET.  We will explore a number of the ways in which client-side desktop virtualization will transform the PC for both IT admins and end-users, including:

• The ability to run multiple operating systems on a single device and easily move from a personal to a corporate environment
• Easy migration from Windows XP to Windows Vista or soon Windows 7
• Enhanced data protection, backup and security
• Improved PC management for mobile and remote workers
• Remote desktop access to your documents, settings and self-installed applications

Visit our registration page to learn more or to register.

Processor Magazine is asking how small and medium sized businesses are challenged by laptop management:

Notebooks are outselling desktops. IDC reported that, for the first time in the U.S., notebook PCs outsold desktop PCs for all Q3 2008. We knew this shift was coming, but what does it mean for IT? What are the new challenges facing IT managers, and how will they change their approach to PC management?

Making laptops easier to manage is a key area of focus for us at Virtual Computer, and Dan McCall, our CEO, provided some insight, including expanding on the challenges faced, such as patch management and backup strategy for laptops. Dan notes that SMEs, in particular, need turnkey solutions for provisioning, patching, security and backup.

The great thing about the NxTop model of centralized virtual desktop management with distributed execution on traditional PC hardware is that it provides countless scalability and mobility advantages for large enterprises while also scaling down very nicely to accommodate smaller organizations that find the server-hosted desktop model too costly and complex.

Earlier this week, I noted HP’s increase in laptop sales (sure to be followed up by similar increases at other vendors) and it got me thinking about how difficult in can be to manage all of those mobile desktops. Besides the basics of desktop management (patches, updates and so on), there are all of the usual security issues and brand new ones (theft is a bigger issue when laptops are “out in the world” and it’s more likely that some form of malware will be installed when someone is using their work laptop to surf the web at home). One has to be careful and diligent about laptop management, even moreso than “regular” desktop management.

Don’t get me wrong: laptops offer many benefits over traditional desktops and the decreased cost of laptops is allowing more and more people to see these benefits — and as an end-user, I love the flexibility my laptop offers me.

Are you responsible for laptop management? What are your concerns? Leave a comment and let me know.

What’s the difference between desktop management and laptop management? You go to the desktops but the laptops come to you.

It’s a simplistic view but it’s generally true. Managing desktops can be fairly straight forward (again, a simplistic view) — something needs to get done, you go to the desktops and do whatever it is that needs to get done. Managing laptops can be a bit more difficult because they can be moved around, taken home or taken on the road.

An IT admin that I know says this is one of the consistent frustrations that he deals with, especially on a patch day. He can go around during lunch, meetings or after people have gone home but tracking down the laptops in the office gives him grief.

When it comes to management of your company’s PCs, what is your top concern: the management of those desktops or the security of those desktops? If you’re using some form of desktop management software, or a combination of utilities that forms a desktop management strategy, are you looking for something that fits within your existing security setup or something that has security features of its own? Maybe you’re looking for both or — and I hope this isn’t the case – you’re not looking for security at all.

For many people, it’s one or the other. Security often trumps the actual management of desktops (or vice versa). I don’t think this has to be the case. A good security system is flexible enough for all of your desktop management tools and good desktop management includes at least some security features but will always fit within any other security that is already in place.

There’s no question that telecommuting is on the rise for so many reasons: gas prices are going up, companies are looking to offer employees a better balance of work and life, the price of laptops allow companies to issue more of them, broadband is available in almost every household and a host of other reasons.

There’s also no question that telecommuting can be a good thing but there are risks. The one that comes immediately to mind is that the more laptops that are out there, the greater the chance that sensitive company data will be compromised in some way. Laptops get stolen. They’re left around for others to access. Data is stored on USB drives or other portable media and something happens to those devices. Laptops are outside the company intranet. More personal (or non-authorized) software is installed, opening up those machines to greater security risks.

As telecommuting rises, so does the potential for all of these security risks. Finding a way to keep company data secure should be on the top of everyone’s mind.

Desktop management can be really time consuming, can’t it? Even in a small company, managing a few dozen desktop machines can take a big chunk of time. In larger environments — 1,000 desktops or 10,000 desktops or more — it’s usually better but that’s only because a desktop management “process” has been put in place and it’s a team of people taking care of things. But better doesn’t mean easier or any less time consuming. 

And classic desktops — that is, a box with attached monitor, keyboard, etc. — don’t pose the biggest challenge. Updating and patching laptops that are constantly on the move (especially those used in remote offices or by a sales team that is always on the go) inevitably keep  your from ever reaching 100%.

How do you handle desktop management? Are you using desktop management tools? Do you not really worry about updating and patching all desktops all the time, instead waiting until a machine needs to be replaced or is in for something else?