What Is a Virtual Desktop and How Do Virtual Desktops Work?

In today’s rapidly evolving work landscape, the ability to enable remote work seamlessly has become a cornerstone of operational continuity. Enter virtual desktop solutions – the catalysts that elevate mobility and remote accessibility, all while maintaining security and adaptability across a spectrum of devices and networks. These innovative solutions offer a multitude of advantages compared to traditional physical desktop setups. Join us in this blog as we delve deep into the essential components of Virtual Desktop technologies, uncovering how they can optimize hybrid work scenarios within your organization. Let’s explore the world of virtual desktops, unraveling their potential and possibilities.

What Is a Virtual Desktop?

A virtual desktop refers to a software simulation of a hardware device operating on a physical or virtual machine situated remotely, whether on-premises or in the cloud. Platforms like Azure Virtual Desktop exemplify this concept by allowing users to remotely access their personalized desktop setups via a network. This encompasses the complete desktop experience, including operating systems and software applications, accessed through client software or web browsers on their preferred endpoint devices.

How Does a Virtual Desktop Work?

Virtual desktop infrastructure operates through virtual machines to provide virtual desktop experiences across a range of connected devices, using two main approaches: persistent and non-persistent.

In a persistent virtual desktop setup, each user is assigned a distinct desktop image exclusively customized by them, complete with personalized apps and data. This configuration retains all applications and files even through reboots, maintaining user settings for each login. This consistent approach resembles the familiarity of a physical PC environment, promoting user adoption and proving particularly advantageous for power users. Managing individually customized virtual desktops entails unique considerations for storage and software updates, differing from non-persistent virtual desktop solutions.

On the other hand, a non-persistent virtual desktop infrastructure allows users to access virtual desktops from a shared pool of available options. These non-persistent virtual desktops replicate from a common “golden” desktop image, generating a fresh instance upon each user login. Personalization of non-persistent virtual desktops occurs through user profiles, scripts, or specialized software, though any changes made during sessions, such as app installations, are discarded. Reduced storage needs result from storing user configuration settings and data separately. When a user logs out, the virtual machine reverts to its base image state, ready for the next user. Administratively, non-persistent desktops are easier to manage due to the consistent base image, often making them more popular than persistent desktops.

In the realm of VDI, creating multiple virtual machines from a single physical machine is orchestrated by a hypervisor in on-premises environments. This hypervisor ensures server operating system isolation, intercepting commands directed at the underlying hardware. It facilitates multiple operating system instances via virtual machines (VMs), all utilizing a shared hardware platform. This hypervisor and underlying infrastructure are abstracted within public clouds, allowing administrators to interact directly with virtual machines and leverage cloud-native actions and APIs.

Given that virtual machines mimic physical machines but draw resources from a single computer system, virtualization enables IT organizations to run multiple operating systems on one server or within a single public cloud account. This spans from Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019 to Linux and FreeBSD. Computing resources—like CPU, RAM, and disk space—are allocated to each virtual machine by the hypervisor or public cloud as required. This form of server virtualization serves as the bedrock of cloud computing.

What Benefits Does a Virtual Desktop Offer?

Compared to traditional physical desktop machines, virtual desktops offer the following benefits:

Elevated User Experience through Virtual Desktops

IT professionals responsible for providing desktops to employees or contractors can deliver a consistent experience across a spectrum of devices, from PCs and tablets to smartphones and thin clients. This empowers workers with a remarkable degree of flexibility in their work methods. The virtual desktop environment accommodates personalization, allowing users to access a familiar “home” desktop experience on any client device they prefer, including personal devices brought to work (BYO devices).

Enhanced Security Features

Virtual desktops bring forth notable security advantages. VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) enables precise control and secure data isolation, avoids data storage on endpoint devices, and subsequently minimizes vulnerability to theft. As sensitive data remains within the data center, IT gains the capability to conduct audits and manage security incidents more effectively. This proves particularly pivotal in industries subject to stringent regulations, ensuring compliance.

Efficiency in IT Operations

Due to the centralized management nature of VDI, which operates from a data center or public cloud, administrators can seamlessly apply software patches, updates, configure settings, and enforce policies for all virtual desktops across the deployment. This encapsulated environment also provides developers a safe space to test applications without jeopardizing the production setup.

Cost-Effectiveness

Despite users interacting with applications on virtual desktops as if they were on physical devices, the virtual desktops themselves reside within virtual machines on servers within on-premises or cloud data centers. As computational processing occurs in these central data centers, virtual desktop technology allows organizations to opt for more budget-friendly endpoint devices instead of high-performance desktop clients.

Seamless Scalability

A dependable VDI solution simplifies scaling crucial applications and services to accommodate a growing population of mobile users and remote teams. Whether expanding the workforce temporarily—such as with seasonal employees or contractors—or embracing a permanent shift towards a widely dispersed remote workforce, organizations can swiftly extend the VDI environment. This agility enables users to become operational within minutes, gaining instant access to enterprise virtual desktop workloads and associated applications.

Final Thoughts

Virtual desktops redefine computing by simulating hardware through software, granting access across devices. The persistent and non-persistent models offer tailored experiences, while virtual machines and hypervisors drive efficient management. These benefits include enhanced user flexibility, robust security, streamlined IT operations, cost-effective resource utilization, and seamless scalability. This paradigm shift aligns with evolving work patterns, forging a dynamic computing landscape.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an example of a virtual desktop?

Some of the examples of virtual desktops are as follows:

• VMware workstation
• Citrix Local VM Desktop (FlexCast)
• Microsoft Hyper-V

What are the 3 modes of virtual desktops?

The 3 modes of virtual desktop are as follows:

• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
• Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)
• Remote Desktop Services (RDS)

What is the difference between physical desktops and virtual desktops?

Here are the main differences between physical desktops and virtual desktops: