CDW: More of us to do practice business online

Vernon Hills-based CDW says 90 percent of medium and large businesses are considering or implementing at least one form of client virtualization.

Driven by the promise of reduced costs and improved operation efficiency, 91 percent of that group plan to implement a client virtualization solution within the next 12-24 months. This is despite the potential for bumps in the road, as almost all respondents (97 percent) say they have faced challenges, although many of them are not related to the technology itself, including getting management behind the initiative, training end-users and ensuring the technology will work on an individual level.

The poll surveyed 200 IT managers at U.S. businesses larger than 100 employees to understand what is driving the three major categories of client virtualization: presentation, application and desktop virtualization. Client virtualization enables organizations to centrally manage end-user software applications, which in turn provides better mobile computing opportunities, stronger network security and more efficient use of IT resources. Sixty percent of respondents cite reduction of hardware, support and management costs as their primary driver for implementing or considering client virtualization.

In addition to reducing costs, respondents report that client virtualization eases the software distribution process (40 percent), increases IT productivity (38 percent) and improves IT support (37 percent). Despite the expected benefits, businesses report a number of challenges to launching client virtualization, including a lack of preparation: