Independent experts reveal essential desktop virtualization insight and proven strategies.

Despite the fact that we’ve been talking about desktop virtualization for years, there is still a lot of confusion and hype in the market. People who have tried desktop virtualization find that they’re not nearly as far along and that it’s not as easy as they thought, and those who want to try it, well, where do you even begin?

So for 2012, let’s reset the conversation about desktop virtualization. Forget the fluff. This is the real world event you’ve been waiting for.

In this half-day seminar featuring world-renowned independent desktop virtualization experts Brian Madden, Shawn Bass, and Gabe Knuth (see agenda for who is speaking in which city), you’ll learn what you need to know about desktop virtualization and VDI for 2012.

In fact, these guys are probably going to tell you more about where you DON’T need to use VDI and where it DOESN’T make sense. They’ll help you figure out where you stand today. The reason they know where desktop virtualization will work is because they’ve seen so many environments where it hasn’t worked.

Desktop virtualization can be amazing, but you have to understand what it is and where it makes sense. Brian, Shawn, and Gabe will tell you that desktop virtualization is not about saving money. (Phew!) They’ll tell you it’s not about Windows apps on an iPad. (Gag!) Desktop virtualization is about delivering Windows applications in certain scenarios to certain users with increased reliability, security, and flexibility.

Desktop virtualization isn’t always right for everybody, but it’s right in a lot of cases, and our experts will tell you when and why.

Specific topics covered at this event include:

• The adoption rate of desktop virtualization (and why everyone isn’t doing it despite what the vendors may lead you to believe)
• An update on the latest desktop virtualization & VDI products (Citrix, Microsoft, VMware, Quest, etc.)
• Desktop virtualization is not about saving money (unless you lie with your cost analysis)
• Don’t forget about the traditional desktops (desktop virtualization is more about “desktops” and less about “virtualization”)
• The fact that Windows is old and is making our lives difficult
• Client-based desktops
• Client hypervisors
• Data center-based desktops
• Remoting protocols (PCoIP, HDX, RemoteFX, etc.)
• Cloud-based desktops (Do these really threaten the Windows way of life?)
• Storage & IOPS
• TS versus VDI
• Application Virtualization (App-V, ThinApp, etc.)
• Disk layering and disk image sharing
• User-installed apps
• User Virtualization (User profiles, user personalization)
• One desktop per user
• The “Desktop” versus the “desktop”
• The future of Windows
• SaaS apps vs. Windows apps (Do we have to deal with ChromeOS?)
• The consumerization of IT (Should we be worried?)