Blades in the running as firms rethink desktop plans

Large companies are rethinking the way their desktop computing infrastructure looks - which could mean some big changes over the next five years, according to analysts.

Companies are struggling with desktop management, security and application maintenance said Simon Yates, research director at analyst Forrester.

As a result they are looking to new technologies such as blade PCs - where the hardware is not on the desktop but tucked away in the server room - and PC virtualisation, which allows them to run key applications in a very secure "sandbox".

Speaking at an event organised by HP where the company unveiled a number of new desktops, laptops and workstations, Yates said: "There will be a big shift over the next five years as to what the desktop environment looks like."

HP's VP of commercial products for EMEA, Alberto Bozzo, said that in the last month a financial services company in London has installed 250 HP blade PCs on its trading floor.

Other big markets for blade PCs include digital content creation - such as movie studios - and the oil and gas industry, he said. "We believe that in 18 to 24 months this can account for 25 per cent of the workstation CPUs sold," he told silicon.com.

With the wave of PC replacements that occurred over the last couple of years slowing down, the next big boost for the PC industry is likely to come with Microsoft's forthcoming Vista operating system, Yates predicted.

He said: "Operating system migrations are a fairly significant driver behind PC refreshes."

Forrester is seeing "more and more enthusiasm" from end users about Vista, with up to 40 per cent of companies planning to upgrade to it within the first year.

He said: "It looks like companies are looking at it more seriously - and the PC industry in the corporate space has a lot riding on that. We are nearing the end of the current refresh cycle and a lot depends on how fast people start deploying Vista."