Now that we’ve looked at what VDI is and where is can be used, let’s roll up our sleeves and look at the underlying technology that makes VDI possible. At the most basic level you need a few things.

The first part of a VDI solution involves getting your users’ workstations running in your datacenter. As I briefly mentioned previously in this article, there are several ways to run lots and lots of Windows workstations in your datacenter.

You could:

A full analysis of the pros and cons of each of these three techniques is beyond the scope of this article. Needless to say, the VM-based solution usually “wins” for most people because it’s the most cost-effective.

From a central management console you can deliver, manage and update all of your Windows desktops quickly.

Automated Desktop Provisioning. Provision new desktops or groups of desktops, with a simple mechanism for standardizing desktop policies. As with virtual server provisioning, templates can be used for desktop creation.

Template/Master Image Deployment.  VDI platforms enable rapid creation of desktop images from a golden, master image. Whatever updates are implemented on the parent image can be pushed out to any number of virtual desktops quickly, simplifying deployment and patches and reducing costs. These processes do not necessarily affect user settings, data or applications, so the user remains productive on a working desktop, even while the changes are being applied.

Availability and Scalability. The same High-availability technologies and resource provisioning technologies deployed at the server level applies at the desktop level.

VDI and sister, SBC, are certainly not the silver-bullet for desktop provisioning and management, but they are indicative of the pervasiveness which the hypervisor/virtualization concept continues to abstract the OS and applications from the underlying hardware which supports the various workloads organizations – and specifically IT engineers and operators – need to continue to manage.

(most data sourced here)