Intel, Citrix To Collaborate On Virtualized DesktopsIntel, Citrix To Collaborate On Virtualized Desktops

Intel and Citrix Systems are teaming up to answer the question of how to realize gains in desktop virtualization that match those already being reaped in data center server virtualization.

Intel has agreed to make changes to its vPro virtualization technology that it designs into its chips. In the second half of 2009, chips will be produced with vPro "optimized" to accommodate a hypervisor on the client as well as Citrix XenServer server-side hypervisor. Such an adaptation would set up a two-tier virtualization hierarchy, where a central server feeds interactions to a corporate desktop, then a client hypervisor takes over after the user disconnects.

The server hypervisor would remain the senior partner. Once reconnected, the laptop would check in with the server hypervisor to receive updates and security changes; until the user disconnected again, the server hypervisor would be in charge of delivering the corporate desktop image. In effect, the mobile computer would be under the administration of a central authority, but the user's desktop would be free to move around with him on a laptop or whatever computing device he uses to call it up.

This approach "gives the data center control but delivers a mobile image to run on the laptop," said Louis Shipley, group VP and general manager of Citrix's XenServer product group. "The end user doesn't have to make compromises that he had to make before."

Gregory Bryant, VP of the Intel Client Group, said Intel was "happy to have Citrix deliver the specifications for client virtualization. This addresses some of the barriers to implementation. It brings client virtualization to the mainstream and the masses."

The collaboration, announced Wednesday, raises questions about whether Intel continues to see a level playing field among all virtualization vendors or has decided to throw in its lot with Citrix as the most likely candidate to unleash a new round of virtualization aimed at the desktop.

Citrix said it expects the two parties to follow public standards where they exist, but Raj Dhingra, general manager of the Citrix Desktop Delivery Group, in a follow-up interview, made it clear the first goal of the agreement will be to deliver "a secure client virtual machine based on XenServer."

He did not anticipate that VMware would be able to match the two-tier hierarchy of hypervisors based on Intel's additions to vPro. The vPro changes will appear in early versions of the Nehalem chip, enabling a new round of virtualization based on hardware manufactured with it, Dhingra said. "This is Intel, Citrix, and Microsoft working together to get Windows delivered to a virtualized endpoint," he added. Citrix and Microsoft remain close partners and have agreed to use the same virtual machine file format. Dhingra said Citrix foresees related changes sweeping through corporate IT once the two-tier hypervisor hierarchy is available. One is that companies will let employees buy their own preferred laptop, just as they own their own cell phones, then download the corporate desktop onto it. Home personal computing will co-exist with the business desktop but be isolated from it, because of secure virtual machine restrictions.

Corporate data will be more freely available for use on laptops and mobile devices but will be stored in an encrypted fashion on them. If the laptop is lost or stolen, corporate data will suffer little exposure. Corporate data created on the laptop will be synchronized with central databases, so it can't be lost for lack of a backup.

Desktop management will be policy driven and subject to much greater automated administration. "You will spend more on coffee and office supplies than desktop management," predicted Dhingra, which means desktop administration expenses will sink far below Gartner's estimated current expense of $4,000 to $7,000 per user.

Employees will access their corporate desktops from whatever device is most convenient at the time, just as they access e-mail from BlackBerrys and cell phones, Dhingra predicted.

Employees will switch back and forth between personal computing and business computing "without thinking twice," since both will be resident on the same machine, he added.

Citrix's final prediction was that users wouldn't complain about their desktops being too slow, the complaint that sprang up with many early attempts to virtualize the client.