Scott, you offer sage advice for any IT professional venturing down the VDI path to virtualize desktops. Indeed, desktops and servers are different beasts. So too are the different approaches to desktop virtualization.

VDI is a server-based approach to virtualizing desktops that requires the OS, data, apps and compute power to reside in the datacenter. In this "centralize everything" model, infrastructure is the linchpin to success or failure...and the cost elephant in the room.

An alternative approach is to install a type-1 hypervisor on the endpoint and centrally manage the virtualized desktops (and laptops) that operate just like a native PC. The apps stay local, making offline productivity possible and latency issues nonexistent.

This client-based approach is referred to as Intelligent Desktop Virtualization (IDV), a phrase coined by Intel and used to describe Virtual Computer's NxTop product. IDV offers all the same benefits of VDI, yet it can be deployed at a fraction of the cost, and it doesn't compromise the end user experience.

I'm confident that when IT professionals come to the proverbial fork in the road for their virtual desktop initiative, expectations will be exceeded if they choose the IDV path.