I, along with 17,000 of my best friends, just attended VMworld in San Francisco. I sat in on several Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VMware View in VMware speak) sessions and it quickly became clear that the dam that was holding back VDI adoption has started to crack; water is clearly flowing thru, and we should prepare for a flood sooner rather than later.

This portion of the conference reminded me about a good friend - a successful software entrepreneur, turned farmer - and the unpredictable nature of growing crops. He once explained to me all the various factors that impact when crops can be harvested and what the yield will be, such as sun, temperature, rain, soil condition, etc.  Once the crops are ready to be harvested, it literally becomes a race to have everything done in a very short amount of time (days). Although farmers generally know the timing, they still get surprised. They have to deal with some very intense long days; everything else becomes a lower priority.

VDI is ripe for harvesting! More importantly, it is happening all over the world at the same time.The indication of the ripeness lies in several observations. First, customers were asking lots of specific and technical questions at VMworld, which indicates that they are no longer browsing; they have done the initial research and received answers to their basic questions. Second, almost all the VDI sessions I attended had to turn away people as they were full AND there were multiple VDI sessions going on at the same time; this is a big change from previous conferences.  Third, the vendors with expertise and solutions around VDI were all euphoric with happy smiles and busy booths.

So the obvious question is: Is there enough capacity in the IT industry to handle the load? The farmers have had years to build up their capacity, and while several analysts and bloggers have long predicted that the VDI bubble would burst, can the IT vendors support the demand? Based on the vendors I talked with at VMworld, I think the answer is blurry at best.  Why? Well there are still some unsolved technical hurdles (I will explore some of those in a later Blog), still some licensing challenges, and a lot of answers that starts with...."Well, it depends...."

However, one thing is certain, VDI expertise will be a much sought after commodity.... And while my friend might disagree, it sure beats farming!