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The Future of Virtualization and Cloud Computing

Contributed Article by Amir Husain, President and CEO, VDIworks

Virtualization, as one of the enabling technologies underpinning the Cloud, continues to be enormously relevant to the evolving future architecture of computing, specifically end-user computing. There are at least two underlying industry directions that make virtualization immensely relevant. First, is the trend toward highly multicore CPUs. And second, the massive, ongoing adoption of a plethora of mobile device form factors.

Let me explain. In the last 10 or so years, the (desktop) software industry hasn't really come up with a mass-market, killer application that can single handedly employ the full potential of a modern multicore CPU. Yes, tasks like video editing are fairly demanding, but CPU capability and advancement is outpacing even these tasks. And, in any event, such tasks are fairly niche and not really engaged in by most people, on a daily basis. So, the question then arises, how do we effectively utilize the massively multi-core CPUs AMD and Intel continue to release every few months? Even low-power endpoint devices now have up to 5 CPU cores, for example, the newly released Tegra from nVidia. Virtualization, really, is the only effective answer to this utilization dilemma. If a single app can't consume a CPU, virtualization at least allows us full utilization by transforming a single processor into a collection of many, more appropriately sized systems that can each run an end user's workload. Because virtualization is really the only viable means available today to effectively harness modern CPUs, it will increasingly be at the heart of all evolving desktop computing architectures. It is simply an economic imperative. And as a consequence, these workloads will primarily run on systems that runs Hypervisors most effectively; data-center hardware.

Coming to the second trend - the explosion of mobile devices of all form factors - some fundamental new capabilities need to evolve for the, "One user, many devices" vision to work. If every device is an island, the usability of each will diminish. If the user is going to be made responsible for remembering where he placed a certain document, or where he edited his presentation last - his home PC, office laptop or tablet - the entire model comes crashing down. Since computing, data and end-user environments can no longer be tied to each device, they must exist in a central, ubiquitously accessible location. Therefore, mobile device form factors, which consumers and business users have voted for with their hands and feet, will necessitate a massive growth in Cloud services, in turn enabled by virtualization. One idea whose time I believe has finally arrived, is Desktops-as-a-Service. Under this model, the device will no longer primarily be an OS/application execution endpoint, but rather a visualization layer - a window into a virtual computer with unlimited capacity, growing and shrinking in an elastic fashion at some highly secure remote datacenter. Of course, end point devices will provide ever richer means of interaction via multi-touch gestures, visual cues ala Kinect, voice recognition ala Siri and numerous other methods. This means that processing at the endpoint will still occur, it will just be of a different nature. And this rich means of interaction will need to be "connected" to the actual applications hosted in the Cloud. Remoting protocols, as a consequence, will evolve considerably to enable richer forms of end user interaction, while working around latency challenges and making the entire end-to-end computing experience seamless.

These are just two threads that give us some indication of where things are headed. There is a lot more; richer display systems, 3D capabilities and much more. All of these new technologies will require a commensurate evolution of interface software, remoting protocols, Hypervisors, brokers and management tools in order to be a seamless part of the user experience of the future. There is more opportunity with VDI and Cloud now than there has ever been in the past. We are headed for very exciting times!

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About the Author

Amir Husain is the President and CEO of VDIworks (www.vdiworks.com), an Austin, TX based developer of VDI management software. He holds over a dozen filed and awarded patents in Virtualization and Cloud Computing. Amir was the CTO and currently sits on the Board of ClearCube Technology, the world's first developer of PC Blade and Connection Brokering technology. Amir is also a Board member at Pepper.pk, the maker of 3 World #1 Mobile Applications and Wheel InnovationZ, a Texas based stealth startup focused on mobile Cloud computing.