On December 29, Gartner released the latest update to its PC Life Cycle Configuration Management Magic Quadrant.  As it has in the past, the report focused primarily on traditional agent-based PC management tools such as Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, Avocent/LANdesk, and Symantec/Altiris.  However, the commentary and evaluation criteria applied by Gartner foretells a future convergence between PC life cycle management and desktop virtualization:

“The PC life cycle configuration management tool market is mature, but virtualization, mobility, and the convergence of security and operations are affecting customer buying decisions as well as vendor R&D investments.”

Desktop virtualization has traditionally been viewed separately from PC lifecycle management, and I think this is primarily due to two current limitations of desktop virtualization products:

• Most solutions execute virtual desktops centrally on a server, which is a dramatically different model from what people know today as PC life cycle management.
• The subset of products capable of running virtual desktops on “thick client” PCs such as laptops use type 2 hypervisors requiring a non-virtualized host operating system—making PC management more complex instead of easier.

With NxTop, we are bringing together the best of both types of products without the limitations.  Virtual desktops are created and maintained centrally on a server but executed directly on a PC—including disconnected laptop PCs—without the need for a non-virtualized host operating system (and an entirely different set of legacy management tools to go with it).  This effectively makes it easy to manage thousands of PCs as it is to manage one. The IT staff simply applies patches and updates to a master virtual desktop running on a management server, and these changes are automatically applied to the associated virtual machines running on end-user PCs while maintaining any user-specific data and settings.

If a laptop PC is not connected at the time the update is published, it is not a problem.  NxTop simply downloads the update the next time the laptop connects to a network and prepares an updated virtual desktop in the background (outside of Windows) while the user continues using the previous version of the virtual desktop.  That’s right, patches and updates become transparent to the end-user.  Sound like the next generation of PC life cycle management?  We think so too.  That’s why you hear us talk about PC management more than you hear us talk about virtualization, hypervisors, etc.  Virtualization is the enabling technology, but only when you have applied them to solving a business problem like PC management do you have a marketable product.

It was exciting to see Gartner connect the dots between PC life cycle management and desktop virtualization.  Our focus is on making client-hosted virtualization the predominant delivery platform for corporate PC desktops, and once we do the lines between desktop virtualization and PC management will get very blurry very quickly.

If you have a Gartner account, you can find the latest PC Life Cycle Configuration Management Magic Quadrant here.

This one caught me by surprise: Australia has more than double the virtualization adoption rate than the world at large. According to Gartner (as referenced in CIO India), somewhere between 8% and 9% of medium and large business in Australia are using virtualization. The rest of the world is between 4% and 5%.

There’s no reason it should have surprised me — Australia is generally at the front of the IT curve — it’s just that I hadn’t given it altogether too much thought.

I need to try to track down a copy of the full report. I’m curious how “rest of the world” is defined and where other countries fit in the rankings.