Pivot3, a leading provider of VDI converged storage and compute appliances, today announced the results of a research study conducted by Dimensional Research that found more than 80 percent of companies surveyed are currently using or considering Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) as part of their IT strategy. A large proportion of mid-market sized businesses are considering or planning to consider VDI which mirrors Pivot3’s customer adoption momentum moving into 2013. The top three benefits most often cited for VDI adoption included easier maintenance and support, faster deployment of desktops and reduced hardware costs. The research gathered market data through a global survey of qualified IT professionals representing companies of all sizes on VDI adoption, expected benefits, top challenges and hardware impacts.
Key findings from the report included:
- Current state of VDI – A total of 83 percent of surveyed IT professionals agreed that their current IT strategies include VDI. Additionally, 55 percent of participants expect to utilize new hardware. A total of 86 percent stated that VDI appliances are not commodity equipment, and in fact have unique features and capabilities. For desired VDI deployment models, 66 percent of companies prefer an internal and secure VDI deployment over Desktop-as-a-Service (18 percent), hybrid cloud (12 percent) and public cloud (4 percent).
- Consideration high among mid-market sized businesses – Consideration was especially high among mid-market sized businesses with about 80 percent of companies of 5,000 or less employees reporting they are considering VDI as part of their IT strategy. About 60 percent of larger companies (more than 5,000 employees) expressed they are considering VDI.
- Global perspective – While companies in all geographies include VDI as part of their strategy, a larger percentage of more than 70 percent plan to adopt VDI in the United States with Europe and Asia following closely behind.
- Reasons for adoption – Participants attributed VDI success to its ability to enable easier maintenance and support (68 percent), and faster deployment (63 percent), all at an attractive price-point. These factors have prompted larger companies consisting of over 20,000 employees to adopt VDI at an increased rate, as nearly 70 percent of large enterprises surveyed currently use VDI.
- Shift in skepticism – Initial concerns targeting implementation of the technology have shifted to issues with user acceptance, performance expectations and the ability to show a positive ROI. Increased network bandwidth and user acceptance were found to be the top VDI challenges, whereas only two percent of participants named security as an issue.
“Both new research and our customer adoption momentum moving into 2013, underscore that the year will mark a substantial leap forward for VDI adoption in the mid-market,” said Olivier Thierry, chief marketing officer, Pivot3. “A virtual desktop infrastructure allows IT to satisfy the accelerated mobility needs of the workforce while ensuring the need for a solution that is secure and easy to deploy and manage. As the technology has matured, it has become a more cost-effective solution for both the channel and customers.”