desktop virtualisation
Desktop virtualisation differs from Application Virtualisation in one principle way. Whereas application virtualisation can (and usually does) deliver a virtualised desktop to users; the desktop is running on the same operating system in the background, sharing the resources of that operating system, and vulnerable to failure if a problem occurs on that operating system.
Desktop virtualisation, in this context, refers to the delivery of a complete virtual operating system (for example Windows XP or Linux based) running on a dedicated virtual machine (see Server Virtualisation for a discussion on the general concepts of operating system virtualisation). In order to make the provisioning of these virtual machines manageable, a broker service is required in order to automatically allocate virtual desktops to users.
key points
