IBM pledges to cut desktop costs

IBM has introduced new services it says will let customers more quickly and securely set up thin-client computing environments and reduce money spent maintaining desktops.

IBM’s Virtual Infrastructure Access service will offer customers assessment, planning, design and implementation of thin-client-based applications, and hardware.

“This will help customers move legacy PC load off the desktop to a server, and enable customers to access full-client machines via virtual machines from VMware or Xen,” says Pat Boulton, CTO for IBM End User Services. She says adopting this type of server-based computing model can reduce an organisation’s exposure to viruses, better protect intellectual property and data, and lower the costs of backing up and storing data on each client machine.

The service competes with HP and its Consolidated Client Infrastructure and Citrix’s flagship Presentation Server.