Desktop Virtualization Cost Analysis - and Zirtu Comparison

Desktop Virtualization TCO

Real costs of VDI are hard to find out, hard to compare and hard to quantify tangibly. In this document, we have compiled a cost comparison of VDI solutions by leading vendors.

This analysis focuses on the tangible costs – quantifiable dollars spent. Of course, intangible costs (such as transition to VDI, IT assets maintenance, staff training) play a no less significant part as well – but they are even more difficult to quantify in a rigorous way, and tend to lead to misleading cost analysis. The tangible VDI cost consists of the following:

• End-user licenses – cost per end-user / per end-device, charged by the VDI vendor.
• Server-side licenses – cost for server-side licensing, charged by the VDI vendor.
• Virtual Desktop Access license (VDA) licenses for using virtualized Windows OSs on the VDI servers (or Microsoft Software Assurance) – in VDI solutions based on running virtual machines on a server, each instance must have either a Virtual Desktop Access license ($100) or a Microsoft Software Assurance license ($55 per year). We assume the latter, smaller cost. Note that Zirtu does not require Windows VDA licensing on the back-end - since Zirtu uses no back-end VMs.
• Server hardware initial cost, amortized and average – in VDI solutions based on running virtual machines on a server, a server for running the VMs must be acquired per each 30-50 users. These servers require a large amount of RAM and processing power. Costs may differ between brands and configurations, so we assume a very optimistic amortized cost of $100 per user. Note that Zirtu does not require a VM server farm, since it utilizes the resources of the end-point, reducing the back-end footprint.

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