Security seen as a driver for adoption of desktop virtualisation

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 08 December 2011 00:05

Business IT - Technology

Research commissioned by virtualisation vendor Citrix suggests that Australian IT decisionmakers are generally thinking along similar lines to their overseas counterparts in terms of the security implications of desktop virtualisation. Not surprisingly, it's seen as a good thing.

A survey carried out for Citrix in 11 countries including Australia, the UK and the US found 86% of respondents believe desktop virtualisation offers a strategic approach to improved information security, but just 68% of Australian respondents were of that opinion.

Stuart Driver, director of worldwide regional IT operations at Citrix, told iTWire this relatively large difference was probably "a statistical anomaly" as a very high proportion of Australian respondents said they were adopting desktop virtualisation to improve security. For example, 93% of Australian respondents said they expected desktop virtualisation to help respond to new and emerging threats.

Overall, 33% of respondents said they had already deployed desktop virtualisation, and another 58% said they planned to do so by the end of 2013. Other perceived benefits included reduced costs, greater workplace flexibility and support for mobile workers, and better risk management.

According to Mr Driver, desktop virtualisation provides an affordable way of delivering applications to mobile devices. The growing use of BYOD means organisations can't simply develop mobile apps for a single platform, and developing for multiple platforms is an expensive practice.

An important aspect of mobility is the need to apply granular access controls according to the user's situation. For example, access to certain applications may only be permitted when the device is connected to a trusted network or VPN, or it may be deemed necessary to block access to local storage devices when a virtual desktop is being used from a home PC.

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