VMware View3 – the new name for VDI – can give cost savings on several fronts. Simply by switching from standalone PCs on the desktop to a thin client and VMware View3 you can save around 45% on hardware and power costs. When you factor in the decreased management overhead from standardizing the infrastructure on a single base image and application virtualization and deployment with the ThinApp features, it increases the margin by decreasing problem calls to the HelpDesk.

However, this sort of infrastructure rollout isn’t for everyone. VMware is suggesting a target audience of companies that have over 200 managed desktops. Less than that, and the cost and management savings aren’t as dramatic.

Central management of the desktop image, ThinApp deployment, linked clones through the View Composer feature to decrease backend storage requirements, and the offline desktop client allow for a large range of features to manage the enterprise desktop. This is even more dramatic if the customer has an existing VMware installation, as there will be minimal training overhead to roll out the solution within their own infrastructure design.

Check out this Desktop Virtualization white paper — decent overview from a VMware perspective.