When it comes to creating a virtual desktop, there are a lot of options ranging from thin client systems and terminal services to virtual desktop infrastructure and application virtualization.

In a Simplifying Desktop Virtualization Deployment webinar presented by VMware, the fundamentals of VDI and application virtualization, along with a novel way of creating “zero-client” virtual machines from Pano Logic, are explained.

Tisa Murdock, senior product marketing manager for desktop VMware, does a good job of explaining how the components of VMware View works and how ViewManager provides the internal glue that keeps track of all the instances within a VDI system. She also shows how VMware addresses security and personalization issues and walks attendees through the role VMware’s ThinApp application virtualization module can play in terms of streaming applications to the desktop via a virtual machine residing on a server.

Murdock adds that the optimal VDI setup ranges from about six to eight desktop instances per processor core.

Ali Orady, chief technology officer for Pano Logic, then shows how Pano Logic leverages VMware’s approach to create a new type of client device. Pano Logic offers a low cost terminal that includes no processor or software. Instead, it accesses all the required desktop software running on top of an instance of VMware on a server. Instead of relying on a terminal services type protocol to ship dat back and forth between the server and the desktop, Pano Logic has “stretched” the I/O bus so the server thinks it is communicating with a local client.

Neither speaker addresses the best application scenarios for VDI, or any issues associated with mobility, graphics, performance, bandwidth requirements or storage needs required for VDI. But overall this is a very good place to get started with VDI.

Rating: Glosses over some issues, but otherwise is very informative –TWM1.