Recently I have been thinking about the a new wave called client hypervisor. After all major vendors have server virtualization on stock, the client will get focus. Citrix are already talking about Citrix Client Hypervisor, VMware named their new kid Client Virtualization Platform and probably Microsoft has some stuff in their kitchen as well. A nice startup company called Neocleus already has some cool technology supporting the client hypervisor.
A client hypervisor is a type 1 hypervisor that runs on bare metal instead of a host operating system. It allows direct use of the hardware. Depending on the technology used, the hardware can be shared or partitioned.
I have seen several projects where a second PC on a desk with a different meaning would be useful. Think about a high performance PC for graphics, or a less restrictive PC for development. These requirements are often valid in remote computing environments, where the ‘task worker’ workspace does not provide enough power or flexibility. But besides remote computing environments, the same challenges exist in well controlled client-server environments.
A client hypervisor might solve the challenges described above by providing a second operating system running on the same machine simultaneously. In case interoperability is required between the two operating systems, the underlying client hypervisor technology should support this. Both operating systems still have to be managed though. This will probably result in a happier user and a very stressed IT administrator that has to manage an extra operating system and the additional client hypervisor technology.
The real-life examples that I have seen (Europe), were applicable to only a small group of users throughout the enterprise. Most users were just happy with their ‘task worker’ workspace. From a commercial point of view it is more interesting, when the solution is applicable to all users instead of a small group.
When looking a little bit more out of the box, other possibilities arise. What if I can give all by users a private operating system with all the flexibility and software they use at home. Having a private operating system by hand, users can keep up their social life at work. If this is adopted in a disciplined way, users might spend more hours at the office with a smile on their face. From a technical point of view the IT administrator can isolate the private operating system from the corporate one. As discussed earlier, introducing client hypervisor in the enterprise will require more administrative attention, but in this case it might pay off by more productive users. The concept of Bring Your Own PC also offers two computing environments in a box, but not on a corporate PC, but on your own PC.
Another totally different way to use client hypervisors in the enterprise is to enable distributed computing. Not the seti@home kind of distributed computing, but distributed services. The desktop computer has a lot of power that is not always used. For example when typing a letter in a word processor, I have a lot of memory and CPU cycles doing nothing. If only I could run an application server in the background, the user is not even aware of. Of course I have to break the power button to prevent power off 
.
If using the client hypervisor for distributed computing, probably the current solutions have to be modified a bit, but cost wise I think it is interesting, because you might be able to empty out the datacenter.
The startup Neocleus has a great technology, that allows ISV to create software for the client virtualization framework. This allows ISV to perform out-of-band management with the use of Intel’s vPro technology. Out-of-band management might improve security and manageability of operating systems.
Roundup
The client hypervisor is cool technology, but personally I would first do the math (ROI) on the server virtualization hype to see if that innovation already paid off. A thorough business case has to be made to decide if this new wave is profitable.
Technical impact:
- More complexity by introducing an extra virtualization layer
- More operating systems to manage
- Exited IT administrators, because it is cool
Profitable use cases:
- Introduce private computing environments that might increase productivity
- Distributed computing
- Provide a second computing environment different from the corporate standard to those who have exceptional needs
- Improve security with out-of-band management
This article is just a personal opinion.
